28 November 2013

Unscrambling reports regarding Egg Timer Test – it is a helpful guide for fertility

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IVF Australia

There was a recent media report that cast doubt on the value of the Anti Mullerian Hormone blood test (often called the ‘egg timer’ test). However, our view at IVFAustralia is that this is simply not the case and that an AMH level remains a valuable and useful part of assessment of your fertility.

“It is clear that there certainly was an issue earlier this year, related to one of the test systems used to test AMH levels where some discrepancies in the test readings became apparent at the lower end of the scale. However, the discrepancy in test results were associated with a difference between a very low result and a simply low result (which was the assay problem) and this is not clinically significant. The assay format has since been overhauled and the reading discrepancies corrected,” explained A/Professor Peter Illingworth Medical Director IVFAustralia.

“It is also important to be careful about what you should read into an AMH test. An AMH test will NOT predict your chances of falling pregnant naturally in the near future and many women with a low AMH level can conceive easily. However, an AMH test can accurately predict the number of eggs that you have remaining in your ovaries and thus give you a guide to when your eggs are likely to run out. An AMH level is also a good guide to the outcome from IVF, particularly in women over the age of 40.”

For further information about the AMH test.

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