Can FSH or AMH prove and predict your fertility? In this video, Mark P. Trolice, M.D., a board certified reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist and founder of Fertility CARE: The IVF Center shares his insights.

“Follicle-Stimulating Hormone (FSH) has been the gold standard for many years of ovarian-age testing,” says Dr. Trolice. “FSH is a pituitary hormone used to stimulate the follicle that’s going to develop the egg and ovulate that month. The higher the level of FSH early in a menstrual cycle, the lower the number of eggs.”

“However, FSH is not a very reliable test,” Dr. Trolice continues. “It can fluctuate from month to month and it is very limited because it has to be done at a certain day in the menstrual cycle and the test has a number of false negatives. Even if a FSH level is normal, you could still have ovarian aging that wasn’t detected that month.”

“Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) is the test we use exclusively at Fertility CARE, and most reproductive centers have stopped using FSH and now test only with AMH,” says Dr. Trolice. “AMH is a hormone produced in the cells surrounding the egg. Therefore, the lower the number of eggs, the lower the AMH, and the higher the ovarian aging.”

“The question is what do they really reflect? Can they predict fertility?” asks Dr. Trolice.

“A recent study from North Carolina published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at women between the ages of 30 and 44, who had lower levels of AMH and FSH and compared them to women of the same age with normal FSH and AMH levels,” says Dr. Trolice. “And there were no difference in pregnancy rates between the two.”

“But there are certain caveats though,” says Dr. Trolice. “First off, they did not include any fertility problems in the man or the woman. Second, they did not include patients who had subsequent use of fertility medication, so we did not know if that was included. And third, the pregnancy tests were just the positive pregnancy tests. They didn’t talk about ongoing pregnancies or live birth. We don’t know if low AMH or high FSH would have resulted in a higher rate of miscarriage.”

“The bottom line,” concludes Dr. Trolice. “Unless you’ve been trying for adequate time to conceive, I think getting tested for AMH or FSH levels is premature. The younger you are, irrespective of these test results, you should still have good success because you still have good quality eggs.”

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Dr. Mark P. Trolice is the Director of Fertility Care: The IVF Center in Winter Park, Fla., the most comprehensive fertility center in the Southeast. A leader in the field of reproductive endocrinology, Dr. Trolice has helped countless patients become parents in central Florida since 1999.

In addition to his work at Fertility Care: The IVF Center, Dr. Trolice is also the Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology (OB/GYN) at the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Dr. Trolice is double Board-certified in REI and OB/GYN while maintaining annual recertification in these specialties and has been awarded the American Medical Association's "Physicians' Recognition Award" annually. In May 2005, Dr. Trolice was inducted into the prestigious American College of Endocrinology adding to his unique distinction of also being a fellow in the American College of OB/GYN and the American College of Surgeons. His fellow physicians have selected him for Best Doctors in America® annually since 2007, honoring him as one among the top 5% of doctors in the U.S.