What Your AMH Number Actually Means

AMH is a headcount. It's produced by the cells around your small developing follicles, so it estimates how many are currently in the waiting room — and that's genuinely useful for one thing: predicting how your ovaries will respond to stimulation drugs. Which is why the people ordering it most are the people doing IVF. What it doesn't do is grade a single egg, or predict natural conception. In a study published in JAMA in 2017 following women with no history of infertility, low AMH did not translate into a lower chance of conceiving within six or twelve months. I also go through a patient case where the number went down and the outcome went the other way.