AMH stands for Anti-Müllerian Hormone. It is a hormone produced by the small follicles in your ovaries. Your AMH level indicates how many eggs your ovaries may be working with at the moment (and for the next few months). However it does not inform us about the quality of your eggs (we estimate that based on age) and whether or not you can conceive naturally (you only need one good egg!)

The AMH test can be taken at any time in your cycle, however the levels can fluctuate slightly from month to month. Also, if you’ve recently stopped taking the oral contraceptive pill, it’s best to wait at least 3 months before testing as the pill can sometimes falsely lower your AMH level. One option is to stay on the pill and only repeat the test off the pill if you get a low reading.

A low AMH level suggests that you may have fewer eggs remaining in your ovaries than expected for your age, you may have less time than average to conceive and it may be harder to retrieve a high number of eggs if you pursue IVF. However the more important factor, the quality of your eggs is not something that the AMH test can measure. The egg quality is mostly related to your age, and unfortunately, there's no test that can tell us this information.

Although AMH naturally declines with age, and there’s no proven way to increase it. You can protect your ovarian reserve by avoiding things that are known to speed up egg loss, such as smoking, being exposed to toxins or having surgery to the ovaries.

If you have a strong family history of early menopause, or you have an autoimmune condition, it’s worth discussing having the AMH test earlier on, especially if you're not ready for kids yet but may want them in the future as it may help you to decide whether to undertake fertility preservation.