Do you recall my post on AMH and maternal age? Well, AMH is a marker of ovarian reserve. It's level is directly associated with the number of follicles (or eggs) that are left available in the ovaries.
It's a marker in the blood that can determine how well your ovaries will respond to stimulation prior to oocyte (egg) collection. This may be for IVF (in vitro fertilization) and embryo transfer, or for storage of eggs if a woman has a health condition requiring storage of eggs.
We know that fertility decreases with age. A woman is born with all her eggs and does not make any new ones. When I was a research student between my first and second year of veterinary school, I wrote an article interviewing a colleague and mentor of mine, who now works in a human fertility clinic in Saskatoon.
Another colleague of mine in graduate school wanted to study AMH in calves and its association with antral follicle count (AFC; number of follicles that grow to a large size - these follicles continuing eggs).
Well, I had my blood sample taken on Monday and I received my results. My CBC and Chemistry panels are normal. Even my hormone levels for day 4 of my cycle were prety close to normal, but my AMH is very low.
My AMH is 2.3 pmol/L - and from the graph it is in the low range. There are several graphs by age for AMH online. As you can see above, that for women with AMH < 5 pmol/L then you are 63% likely to produce less than 8 follicles during stimulation. My doctor said that for someone of my age, the average is between 9 and 18 pmol/L, so 2.3 is significantly lower. It means that chances of conceiving naturally or with IVF is lower than normal, even for someone my age. I'm happy that I have some answers though. It means that all the measuring of my LH with ovulation prediction kits, and monitoring my basal body temperature, and matching all this up with trying to make a baby, then failing to do so - actually has a reason. This reason I kind of knew all along, however, I didn't have any hard evidence of it. My doctor seemed hopeful. In this unpredictable times, she said that the fertility specialist she refers to is open and taking patients, so this is good. She says it is time sensitive, so is sending my results to the specialist right away. She also encouraged me by saying that she's had patients with even lower AMH who have successfully gotten pregnant.
My other hormones are below... I share my story in hopes that someone out there will benefit from it one day!
For more on my fertility journey, click here.