Tag: how to increase AMH quickly

You’re born with all the eggs you’ll ever have and you can’t increase the number of eggs you have, so there’s no proven way to increase your AMH levels in a way that improves your fertility. But some things can lower your AMH reading, such as hormonal contraception and smoking, and addressing them may help. And a low AMH result doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant. If your AMH result came back lower than you expected, it’s natural to want to do something about it. Search online and you’ll find supplements, foods and programmes promising to “boost” your AMH, sometimes quickly. Here’s what the evidence actually says: what can affect your AMH, what you can realistically do to protect your fertility, and what your result really means. Quick facts What is AMH and what does it tell you? AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone) is made by the small, developing follicles in your ovaries, each of which contains an immature egg. The more of these follicles you have, the higher your AMH tends to be. That’s why your AMH level gives an indication of your ovarian reserve: roughly, how many eggs you have left compared with others your age. AMH is most useful if you’re planning ahead, considering egg freezing or preparing for IVF, where it helps predict how your ovaries will respond to fertility medication. But it reflects egg quantity, not egg quality, and it can’t tell you whether you’ll get pregnant naturally. Read our full guide to what AMH is and how it’s tested. Can you increase your AMH levels? Not in a way that improves your fertility. You’re born with all the eggs you’ll ever have, and your supply declines naturally with age. No diet, supplement or treatment has been proven to create new eggs or reverse that decline. It helps to separate your AMH number from your ovarian reserve. Your AMH result can change for reasons that have nothing to do with how many eggs you have. For example, it can be lower while you’re using hormonal contraception and rise again after you stop.  What can lower your AMH levels? Some factors lower your AMH reading temporarily. Others affect your ovarian reserve itself. Age. This is the biggest factor. AMH declines gradually through your 20s and 30s, and more quickly from your mid-30s, as your egg supply naturally falls. Hormonal contraception. The pill and other hormonal methods can lower your AMH by 20-30%, but the effect is temporary. If you test while using hormonal contraception, your result may underestimate your ovarian reserve, so some people choose to retest around three months after stopping. Read more about testing your hormones on hormonal contraception. Smoking and vaping. Current smoking is linked with lower AMH, and smokers reach menopause more than a year earlier than non-smokers on average. Research has found lower AMH in people who currently smoke but not in people who used to, which suggests stopping may help. Long-term exposure to second-hand smoke has also been linked with lower AMH. Hertility’s own research has also linked vaping to lower AMH. Ovarian surgery. Surgery on your ovaries can reduce your ovarian reserve, because some healthy tissue may be removed along with the problem. This is particularly true of surgery to remove endometriomas (cysts caused by endometriosis). Cancer treatment. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy to the pelvis can damage your ovaries and lower your ovarian reserve. If you’re about to start cancer treatment, ask about fertility preservation, such as egg freezing, before it begins. Health conditions. Endometriosis and some genetic and autoimmune conditions can affect your ovarian reserve. Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI), where your ovaries stop working normally before the age of 40, causes very low AMH. Can low AMH levels be reversed? It depends on what’s causing it. If your AMH is low because your egg supply has naturally declined with age, it can’t be reversed. Nothing can restore eggs that have already been used up. But a low AMH result doesn’t always reflect your true ovarian reserve. Your reading may be higher when you retest if: After chemotherapy, some women’s ovarian function recovers partly over time, although this varies widely. And in POI, the ovaries sometimes work on and off, so some women with POI still occasionally ovulate and conceive. If your result is lower than you expected, a Hertility specialist can help you work out whether anything might be affecting it. Are there supplements to increase AMH levels? No supplement has been proven to increase your ovarian reserve. Here’s what the evidence says about the most commonly recommended ones. Vitamin D. Research on vitamin D and AMH is mixed. A review of studies found vitamin D supplements raised AMH in women without PMOS but lowered it in women with PMOS. The researchers concluded that larger trials are needed. Vitamin D may change how much AMH your follicles make rather than how many follicles you have. Correcting a deficiency is good for your health, but it isn’t a proven way to improve your fertility. Folic acid. Folic acid hasn’t been shown to raise AMH. But if you’re trying to conceive, you should be taking 400 micrograms of folic acid a day anyway, to help prevent neural tube defects such as spina bifida. Selenium and vitamin E. Small, early studies have suggested these antioxidants may help some markers of ovarian function in women with premature ovarian insufficiency. They haven’t been shown to increase AMH in other women, and high doses of selenium can be harmful, so don’t take them without advice. DHEA. DHEA is a hormone supplement sometimes used by fertility clinics for women expected to respond poorly to IVF. The evidence is low quality, and European fertility guidelines don’t recommend it for this purpose. It can also cause side effects such as acne and excess hair growth, so it should only be taken under specialist supervision. CoQ10. CoQ10 is popular in fertility supplements because it’s involved in producing energy in eggs. Small studies suggest it may help egg quality in some […]