Letter to the Editor From Kloos: “Evaluation of Female Fertility—AMH and Ovarian Reserve Testing”
Year: 2022
Type: letter
Abstract: I read with great interest this clear and comprehensive piece on the utility and imperfection of antimüllerian hormone (AMH) as a marker of the functional ovarian reserve, or the collection of growing follicles available for ovulation (1). While not the main focus of this excellent article, it is important to note that the issue of whether obesity lowers AMH levels is still controversial. As referenced within the publication, there are studies that have found a significant inverse relationship between body mass and serum AMH levels, including the 2018 meta-analysis of 7 studies by Moslehi et al (2). However, studies published since 2018 have generally found no such association. In 2021, a review of 13 studies reported that 8 of these found no significant difference between AMH levels in cohorts with and without obesity. Five determined a negative association between AMH and body mass index or significantly lower levels in the cohort with obesity (2). The true nature of this relationship becomes only murkier when one considers that Jaswa et al (3) found an inverse association via linear regression between AMH and body mass within their cohort without obesity, but not within their cohort with obesity. One must also recognize that the aforementioned results were found in cohorts without polycystic ovary syndrome: Jaswa and colleagues did find significance in their cohort with obesity and PCOS, a distinction that has been seen in other studies (4) but one that also remains disputed. Race and duration of obesity have also been noted to potentially affect the relationship (5, 6).
Author: Jacqueline Kloos
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Subfield: Reproductive Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4283753596