High anti-Müllerian hormone levels might not reflect the likelihood of clinical pregnancy rate in IVF/ICSI treatment.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate if high anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) concentration is a useful tool to predict the outcome of assisted reproductive treatment.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study involving 520 patients who underwent IVF/ICSI procedures in a university hospital. We measured the serum AMH level on day 3 of the menstrual cycle. Based on AMH levels, we divided the patients into three groups as follows: low (<25th percentile) AMH group, average (25th to 75th percentile) AMH group and high (>75th percentile) AMH group. We recorded the fertilization rate (FR), the number of oocytes retrieved, the number of good quality embryos (GQEs) and the clinical pregnancy rate (CPR).

Results: There was no difference between the three AMH groups in terms of maternal age, body mass index (BMI), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2), luteinizing hormone (LH) and testosterone (T) in the IVF/ICSI cycles. The women in the high serum AMH group had a higher number of retrieved oocytes than those in the low or average AMH groups (p < 0.01) in the IVF/ICSI cycles. Compared with the low or average AMH groups, the women with high AMH levels had a higher number of good quality embryos (GQEs) in the IVF/ICSI cycles (p < 0.01). However, high AMH women had no significantly higher clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) compared to the women in the low or average AMH groups. In addition, for the prediction of CPR, the AMH levels alone were not an independent predictor of CPR for IVF and ICSI cycles in the ROC curve analysis.

Conclusions: High anti-Müllerian hormone levels are an independent predictor of the number of retrieved oocytes and good quality embryos (GQEs), but might not reflect the likelihood of higher clinical pregnancy rates (CPR) in IVF/ICSI treatment.