As you know, Six Branches Family Acupuncture is passionate about supporting fertility, pregnancy and hormonal health.
In this blog post, we want to talk about AMH because a lot of people come into the clinic stressed about their AMH number and they don’t always understand what that number means.
AMH stands for Anti-Müllerian Hormone. It's a hormone produced by the ovaries that can be measured through a blood test. AMH levels are often used as an indicator of ovarian reserve, “what’s left in the ovaries” but AMH is not a count of how many eggs you have left.
We just had a patient whose AMH went from 0.45 at age 38 up to 1 at age 40. So this is a HUGE WIN and obviously very exciting for this patient - she’s made a lot of changes in the past 2 years and has been going to acupuncture regularly for quite some time. So she’s done lots of things to support her body.
We want to highlight this case because people think that AMH can only decline with age and that is not true. AMH is a hormone, and like any hormone there are many factors that play into its release.
AMH is a hormone that acts like the brake on a car in the process of ovulation. So in PCOS cases, for instance, the ovaries are on overdrive and the body wants to slow down the ovulation process, so you might see a higher AMH, like 6 or 7.
As we get older, there isn’t as much oomph behind our ovulation, so we see AMH levels decline because the body doesn't need to push the brake, or regulate the ovulation process as much.
The reason that AMH is looked at as a marker of ovarian reserve is that in IVF studies, low AMH is correlated with poor response to IVF. So someone with a low AMH is not likely to get very many eggs in an IVF retrieval. Someone with a high AMH is more likely to have PCOS like issues and may be at risk for ovarian hyperstimulation in an IVF retrieval cycle. It is a very useful number in the IVF context, but it is NOT the be-all and end-all of your fertility.
ALSO, a low AMH does not mean you cannot get pregnant. The most important factors in getting pregnant are:
egg quality
sperm quality
timing of egg and sperm meeting up
endometrial receptivity
progesterone and thyroid function
Those are all things that can be worked on and addressed even if you are not a good candidate for IVF.
A low AMH does NOT mean that you cannot get pregnant.
If you’d like to work with us for fertility support, please go to the contact page and fill out the new patient form there.
If you would like to watch the video version of this blog post, check it out on our Instagram page!
