I'm doing a bit of reading to understand more about AMH: the ranges expected at a given age, how these relate to fertility and units. I thought it would be nice to provide a summary with a cautionary note that these are my notes, and I am not in the medical profession. I put the information together for myself as I assess my AMH value and what it means for future IVF.
(1) What is AMH?
- AMH - antimullirean hormone
- It is secreted by small antral follicles in the ovary
- Studies have indicated that there is a correlation between AMH levels, the woman's age, and the number of eggs remaining in a woman's ovaries
(2) What does the AMH value mean?
- Relatively good indicator of response to ovarian stimulation during IVF
- There is no AMH cut-off value that ensures either success or failure for IVF for women of child bearing age
- A study in 2010 found that in younger women with higher AMH, there was a moderately good correlation with predicting a live birth after IVF. However, a low AMH value was not necessarily associated with a poor outcome
- An AMH result in isolation should not restrict access nor raise expectations regarding the outcome of IVF
- AMH is an indicator of how much longer your reproductive years will last
(3) What are the age-related ranges for AMH?
- If your AMH value is in ng/ml, and you want to convert to pmol/L, multiply by 7.14
- If your AMH values in in pmol/L, and you want to convert to ng/ml, divide by 7.14
And I leave this to the end for those interested. Here is a bit more information on the units:
- ng/ml = nanograms per millilitre. 1 gram = 1,000,000,000 nanograms
- pmol/L = picomoles per litre. 1 mole = 1,000,000,000,000 picomoles
- A mole is a measurement of the mass of one molecule of a chemical. It is useful with large molecules in biology
- And if your eyes are not glazed over yet (that means you're in my camp and interested in science), the molecular mass of AMH is 140,000 g/mol (compare that to hydrogen at 1 g/mol)