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Clinics selling AMH tests lure women with ‘false promises’, say researchers
Fertility clinics selling AMH tests lure women on the internet with “false promises”, researchers have found.
The anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) test uses a blood sample to estimate the number of eggs available in the ovaries of adult women.
The test can be helpful in fertility treatment as it indicates the approximate number of eggs that can be retrieved for IVF or egg freezing, but it can’t reliably predict the chances of conceiving or the specific age of menopause for individual women.
For this reason, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly discourages AMH testing for women not seeking fertility treatment.
However, Dr Tessa Copp, a post-doctoral research fellow at the School of Public Health, the University of Sydney, Australia, and other researchers have found that the AMH test is being promoted increasingly as a way for women to find out about their fertility and when they will go through menopause.
“Companies, including some accredited fertility clinics, are now selling the test direct to consumers, falsely promising women detailed insights into their fertility potential,” Copp explained.
“We undertook this study due to seeing a plethora of false and misleading advertising by online companies and on social media, and hearing of friends who were tested for inappropriate reasons, thinking it was a test of their fertility, and who then subsequently made significant life changes based on the test result.”
Dr Copp and her colleagues in Australia and the Netherlands designed an online randomised controlled trial that ran between November and December 2022. They recruited 1,004 women aged between 25-40 years, who had never given birth, were not currently pregnant but would like to have a baby at some point and who had never had an AMH test. A total of 967 were included in the final analysis.
The researchers randomly allocated the participants to receive one of two information pamphlets about the AMH test: an evidence-based pamphlet that had been co-designed with the help of women, GPs, gynaecologists and the multi-disciplinary team running the trial or a pamphlet containing content from an existing website promoting the test direct to consumers.
After the women had been selected for the trial and randomised to view either the evidence-based information or the control information, the researchers asked them to complete a questionnaire in which they asked about their interest in having an AMH test. This was measured on a seven-point scale.
They also asked them about their intention to discuss the test with their doctor, their intention to have the test, their attitudes, knowledge, emotional response to the information, anticipated psychological reaction to having the test, anticipated impact on family planning and their satisfaction with the information.
The researchers found that those who had received the evidence-based information had less interest in having an AMH test. The mean average on the seven-point scale for this group was 3.87. Women who had viewed the information from an existing website had more interest, with a mean average of 4.93.
“Given that the mid-point of the scale is four, this means that the women given the evidence-based information were not interested, on average, in having an AMH test, while women in the control group were interested, on average,” said Dr Copp.
“Women who viewed the evidence-based information had a more accurate understanding of what the test could tell them. They also saw it as a less valuable test, and were less interested, on average, in discussing it with their doctor or getting tested, compared to the control group.”
She continued: “These findings show that when enabled to make an informed decision through the provision of evidence-based information, women are not interested in getting an AMH test.
“This contrasts to previous studies showing women are interested in testing when uninformed of the test’s limitations. It illustrates the importance of ensuring women are fully informed about what the test can and cannot do.”
The researchers plan to disseminate the evidence-based information as widely as possible, to clinics, clinicians, companies and other organisations, and via social media.
“We hope the co-designed, evidence-based information developed in this study will help both clinicians and patients in navigating for whom, and in what circumstances, the test is useful,” Copp said.
“Clinics that provide misleading information are breaking codes of practice, such as the Reproductive Technology Accreditation Committee scheme in Australia, and should be held to account.
“Regulatory bodies need to do better at ensuring clinics are transparent and provide accurate information, and act against any parties promoting false and misleading information.”
She added: “We were concerned to find that women in the control group considered the misleading information to be trustworthy and balanced.”
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Light exercise and less sitting may reduce pregnant women’s risk of serious blood pressure complications, according to a new study.
Researchers have proposed a daily activity and sleep guide that they say was linked to a nearly 30 per cent lower risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
The suggested pattern includes fewer than eight hours of sedentary time, at least seven hours of light physical activity, around 22 minutes of more intense activity and nearly nine hours of sleep.
The University of Iowa-led study examined the daily behaviours of 470 pregnant women across all stages of pregnancy.
Participants wore monitors that measured physical activity over 24-hour periods and recorded how long they spent asleep.
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy include chronic high blood pressure, gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia.
Gestational hypertension is high blood pressure that develops during pregnancy, while pre-eclampsia is a potentially serious condition involving high blood pressure and signs that organs may be affected.
Sedentary behaviour means being mostly inactive, such as sitting or lying down.
Light physical activity can include casual walking, moving around the home or standing.
Moderate to vigorous activity includes movement such as brisk walking, where breathing and heart rate increase.
Kara Whitaker, associate professor in the department of health, sport, and human physiology at Iowa and corresponding author of the study, said: “We are identifying the optimal composition of movement behaviours across the day associated with the lowest risk of developing HDP and the most improved health outcomes.
“This blueprint holds for each and every trimester of pregnancy.”
Study participants were enrolled at sites in Iowa City, Pittsburgh and Morgantown, West Virginia.
The women wore activity and sleep monitors for at least one week during each trimester of pregnancy.
Four in five participants were non-Hispanic white and nearly a quarter lived in rural areas.
The data showed a steep rise in risk among pregnant women who were sedentary for more than 10 hours a day.
Women who increased light physical activity to at least four hours a day reduced their risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy to 15 per cent from 30 per cent.
Whitaker said: “Just moving around more seems to have significant health benefits.
“And I think it also may be a more feasible target for women who are pregnant who are not exercising regularly.”
The researchers said they were surprised that longer durations of moderate to vigorous physical activity did not appear to provide additional benefit.
Sleep beyond a certain duration also did not appear to bring major further benefits.
Whitaker said: “Through this study, we are providing evidence that reducing sedentary behaviour and engaging in light physical activity are important, and maybe more important, when it comes to pregnancy and health.”
The findings may be relevant beyond pregnancy because clinical research has shown that women who develop hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease later in life.
Cardiovascular disease includes conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels, such as heart disease and stroke.
Whitaker said: “We know that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women, and if we can intervene in pregnancy and prevent women from developing a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, we are putting them on a better trajectory, away from cardiovascular disease and toward more optimal cardiovascular health.”
The study was published online on June 10.
A second study, published online on May 27, looked more closely at the ratio and type of sedentary behaviour and light physical activity linked to a lower risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Whitaker is a lead co-author on that study.
Co-authors in the June 10 study include Alex Crisp, Jaemyung Kim, Karina Smith, Donna Santillan, Mark Santillan and Bridget Zimmerman, from Iowa; Jacob Gallagher, from Iowa State University; Melissa Jones, from Oakland University in Michigan; Bethany Barone Gibbs, Katrina Wilhite, Alexis Thrower and Iqra Sheikh, from West Virginia University; and Sabera Rahman, Janet Catov, Christopher Kline and Maisa Feghali, from the University of Pittsburgh.
The National Institutes of Health, the University of Iowa Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute funded the research.
We are excited to reveal the winners of the third annual Femtech World Awards.
The winners were announced at a virtual event this afternoon attended by shortlisted companies, along with sponsors and judges.
The event welcomed guests from the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
Thank you to all 174 entries, as well as the sponsors for making the event possible.
See you in 2027!
Femtech World Awards 2026 Winners
Winner:
Shortlisted:
IVI RMA x Juno Genetics
Natural Cycles
Winner:
Highly commended:
U-Ploid
Shortlisted:
Hello Inside
Winner:
WISE HF, led by Prof. Mary Ryder
Highly commended:
Cardiac College for Women
Shortlisted:
Hyvelle Ferguson-Davis
CognitiveCare
Winner:
Highly commended:
Youterus
Shortlisted:
ŌURA
Winner:
Shortlisted:
LeanShield by ParrotPal Group
Perigen
Winner:
Shortlisted:
Body Moody
Looop
Winner:
Shortlisted:
Owning Your Menopause
Womeno
Winner:
Shortlisted:
The Blue Box
Celbrea
Winner:
Shortlisted:
HealCycle
Mor
Winner:
Shortlisted:
HRC Fertility
Mira
Pregnant women’s expectations about postpartum sleep may predict sleep quality after birth, outweighing prior sleep and psychiatric history, a study suggests.
The findings suggest attitudes and beliefs about sleep during pregnancy could be a modifiable risk factor for postpartum sleep concerns.
They also indicate that, among women expecting the poorest sleep, higher postpartum anxiety may further worsen sleep quality.
Sammy Dhaliwal, lead author is clinical health psychologist and research fellow in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dhaliwal said: “Most pregnant women in our sample anticipated poor postpartum sleep before it occurred, and it was striking that those expectations predicted worse sleep outcomes even after accounting for factors such as prior sleep disorders, psychiatric history, and number of previous births.
“This suggests that attitudes and beliefs about sleep during pregnancy may represent a modifiable target for early intervention before postpartum sleep problems emerge.”
Sleep disturbance affects an estimated 60 to 80 per cent of postpartum women and is linked to a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
Researchers said it is often regarded as an expected part of life after childbirth rather than a health issue that may be addressed earlier.
The study enrolled 432 pregnant women at about 24 weeks of gestation, meaning around 24 weeks into pregnancy.
Participants completed measures of their expectations about postpartum sleep, current sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and mood using validated depression and anxiety scales.
Assessments were repeated at six, 12 and 24 weeks postpartum.
A subset of 49 women also wore wrist actigraphy devices at six to eight weeks postpartum.
Actigraphy uses a wearable device, similar to a watch, to estimate sleep and wake patterns based on movement.
The results showed that 70 per cent of pregnant women, or 301 of 432 participants, expected poor sleep in the postpartum period.
Researchers found that predicted sleep disruption during pregnancy was a significant predictor of postpartum sleep concerns.
Among first-time pregnant women without prior health concerns, those who expected greater sleep disturbance had significantly more disrupted sleep after birth, measured by both actigraphy and self-report.
Among women who expected the worst sleep quality, higher postpartum anxiety significantly worsened both measured sleep and self-reported sleep, independent of anxiety levels during pregnancy.
Dhaliwal said the findings point to two possible areas for intervention: addressing sleep-related beliefs during pregnancy and treating postpartum anxiety.
Dhaliwal said: “Postpartum sleep disruption is often treated only after problems develop, but our findings suggest there may be an opportunity to intervene earlier during pregnancy.
“Addressing sleep-related beliefs and postpartum anxiety during prenatal and postpartum care may help improve sleep and emotional well-being in new mothers.”
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