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[Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or medical practitioner. Any medical information is strictly my opinion based on research and personal experience, and not to be taken as advice. Always seek the advice of a licensed physician for your medical needs. Read my full disclaimer here.]
Chances are, if you’ve gone in for any type of fertility testing, you’ve had your AMH levels tested. Mine showed up in my test results without me even realizing it, and without any commentary from my doctor on what my levels meant. And when I looked up my level online (1.18), what I found was a little alarming…which made me do a little more research on it. What I found was conflicting opinions.
What is AMH? How important is it, really? And if it’s low, how do you fix it?
What is AMH?
AMH is a blood test that is used to determine your level of a hormone called antimullerian. This hormone is secreted by immature follicles, which is why your AMH levels are thought to give a rough idea of how many eggs a woman has left (whether or not she has “diminished ovarian reserve”). It doesn’t determine the quality of the follicles, nor is it necessarily a predictor of fertility, as you’ll see below.
What’s normal?
It’s difficult to pin down a “normal” range, because doctors seem to disagree on exactly what is considered normal. If you do a quick google search on what is normal and click on the first few links, you’ll see what I mean. In general, AMH level decreases with age.
One clinical study (which seemed to correlate with others), categorized AMH levels this way:
–Normal: 2.5–6.65 ng/mL for patients ≤31 years of age and 2.0–5.7 ng/mL for patients 32–34 years of age
–Low: <2.5 ng/mL for patients ≤31 years of age and <2.0 ng/mL for patients 32–34 years of age
–Very low: <1.19 ng/mL for patients ≤31 years of age and <0.60 ng/mL for patients 32–34 years of age
(As a side note: Oddly enough, AMH levels can also be too high, which is often an indicator of PCOS.)
Now, if you remember, my level was a 1.18…”very low.” So this prompted my next search:
How much does my AMH level impact my fertility?
Opinions are mixed.
In the same study I referenced above, the time to pregnancy was no different among the “normal” AMH group and the “low” group. However, time to pregnancy was significantly longer in the “very low” group.
ON THE OTHER HAND, a different study showed that women with low AMH levels (<0.7 ng/mL) and women with normal AMH levels had an equal chance of conceiving in 12 cycles. They concluded: “Women should be cautioned against using AMH levels to assess their current fertility.”
Needless to say, AMH levels AND fertility need to be investigated further, and a low AMH level is no need to panic.
So…can my levels be improved?
Since AMH gives a rough estimate of the amount of eggs a woman has left, it wouldn’t make sense that you could increase it. (Since the amount of eggs you have left cannot be increased!)
However, the odd thing is that there have been some evidence-based ways to increase AMH levels: namely, Vitamin D.
This study found that Vitamin D supplements significantly increased a woman’s AMH levels. This study found the same thing. However, be aware that these studies tested women taking abnormally large doses of Vitamin D (40,000-50,000 IU of Vitamin D daily). Other studies — as I pointed out in another post here — contradict this, revealing that large amounts of Vitamin D could negatively impact fertility. (Check with your doctor before you start taking any supplements!)
DHEA supplements have also been proven to increase AMH levels; those should only be taken if prescribed by your doctor (doctors may prescribe DHEA supplements if your bloodwork results reveal low AMH).
So what should we conclude from all of this? More than anything: there’s really no need to panic about your AMH levels. Researchers still do not agree about how important they really are.
