• Posted July 29, 2024

Women Often Misled by Claims About Common Fertility Test

Women are often being sold a fertility test that paints a misleading picture of their ability to conceive a child, a new study warns.

The anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) test uses a blood sample to estimate the number of eggs available in the ovaries of adult women, researchers explained.

However, the AMH test doesn’t judge the quality of those eggs, and it cannot reliably predict a woman’s chances of conceiving or their approaching age of menopause, they added.

Because of this, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is strongly discouraging AMH testing for women not seeking fertility treatment. It’s simply a means of judging how many eggs might be available for IVF or egg freezing.

Unfortunately, the AMH test is being promoted by some as a way for women to learn more about their fertility, said researcher Tessa Copp, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health in Australia.

“Companies, including some accredited fertility clinics, are now selling the test direct to consumers, falsely promising women detailed insights into their fertility potential,” Copp said.

“We undertook this study due to seeing a plethora of false and misleading advertising by online companies and on social media, and hearing of friends who were tested for inappropriate reasons, thinking it was a test of their fertility, and who then subsequently made significant life changes based on the test result,” Copp said.

In the new study, Copp and her colleagues decided to see whether women would go ahead with an AMH test if they fully informed about what it can and can’t show.

For the study, researchers recruited more than 1,000 women ages 25 to 40 in Australia or The Netherlands who’d never given birth but would like to have a baby at some point. None of the women had received an AMH test.

The participants were randomly given one of two pamphlets -- an evidence-based review of the AMH test designed by medical experts, or a brochure containing content drawn from a direct-to-consumer website selling the test to women in Australia.

On a seven-point scale, women scored an average 3.8 when provided the fact-based evaluation of the AMH test -- a general “meh, no thanks."

However, women given the commercial brochure showed more interest in the test, with an average of 4.9.

“Given that the mid-point of the scale is four, this means that the women given the evidence-based information were not interested, on average, in having an AMH test, while women in the control group were interested, on average,” Copp said.

“Women who viewed the evidence-based information had a more accurate understanding of what the test could tell them,” Copp added. “They also saw it as a less valuable test and were less interested, on average, in discussing it with their doctor or getting tested, compared to the control group.”

The results, published July 28 in the journal Human Reproduction, illustrate “the importance of ensuring women are fully informed about what the test can and cannot do,” Copp concluded.

Copp also called on health regulators to enforce codes of practice against clinics and companies that are providing misleading information about the AMH test.

“Regulatory bodies need to do better at ensuring clinics are transparent and provide accurate information, and act against any parties promoting false and misleading information,” Copp said in a journal news release. “We were concerned to find that women in the control group considered the misleading information to be trustworthy and balanced.”

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more on the AMH test.

SOURCE: European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, news release, July 29, 2024