Are fertility tests reliable?

The method used by the homemade fertility test might not be best to identify what women can have difficulty becoming pregnant. This at least is arising from a new study conducted by the school of Medicine of the University of North Carolina.

We often see in forums and blogs negative comments about this type of product for women who have previously relied on them and have finished being more than a surprise.

This new study discovered that the cut-off points used by the fertility test labeled many as infertile women when in reality have children naturally. It does not mean that these tests are useless, but it certainly should be more research and maybe should rethink its mode of operation.

To better understand this should know how to work the fertility test.What do these tests currently is a molecule called FSH or the follicle-stimulating hormone levels measured.Alternatively, the researchers suggest another hormone called anti-Müllerian or AMH, which according to their research could be much more reliable measuring fertility levels measured.

Since one of the main causes of reproductive aging is ageing ovary, most of the attention has focused on search in markers of ovarian - FSH or AMH - as a potential fertility test aging.

FSH levels have shown to predict the time of menopause and likely to conceive after an assisted reproduction, but now it is unclear whether you can also predict the natural fertility (or infertility) in the general population.

Research was considered a hundred women who were at risk of reproductive aging, i.e. those aged between 30 and 45 years. The researchers were measuring levels of estrogen, FSH, and AMH.Subsequently used statistical models to fit the patterns and see if hormone levels are correlated with the time it took to become pregnant.

Discovered that one quarter of women had abnormal levels of FSH and that it would be therefore considered infertile.But when researchers did a follow-up to these women six months, proved that they had no more difficulties to become pregnant than the other participants of the study.However, when it was raised the threshold for these tests to a higher value of hormone, if an association was found with infertility.

The researchers also found that the AMH, hormone FSH, sister was much higher in the prediction of the fertility.Unfortunately, AMH only can be measured in blood and not in the urine, but for now not even the blood test has been approved for clinical use.

Posted by Diana Romero on news