Clinics selling AMH tests lure women with ‘false promises’, say researchers

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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