ALL women who want kids should take a fertility test – so they know how fast their pregnancy time clock is ticking
By the time a woman is 30, she only has about 70,000 eggs left and that number and the number lost per cycle accelerates at a faster rate as she ages
WOMEN should take an ‘egg timer’ fertility test when they are in their twenties so they know how long they have left to have a baby, an expert has warned.
The test is a simple blood analysis that measures the levels of a hormone produced in the ovary.
The hormone, called Anti-Müllerian hormone or AMH, is a good indicator of not just how many eggs a woman is carrying, but her potential responses to fertility medications and how easy it is going to be for her to fall pregnant.
Dr Luciano Nardo, of the Cheshire-based Reproductive Health Group, said knowing a woman’s egg reserve could be vital in helping them conceive in the future.
Dr Nardo, is one of the world’s foremost experts on the AMH test.
He said: “More and more women in the UK are delaying having children until later in life, often for career or relationship reasons.
“But as a woman ages, her reserve of eggs gradually diminishes, declining from around the age of 30 and dropping steeply after 35.
“And the AMH - known as the ‘egg timer’ test - allows a woman to learn exactly how likely she is to conceive.
“I’d like to see increased awareness of the AMH test because, for me, it’s about empowerment, and encouraging women to examine their fertility health at a younger age.”
He advised women to take the test before they turn 30 and the quality of their eggs starts to decline.
He said: “It’ll give an indication of how likely you are to conceive before you even start trying for a baby.
“And if you haven’t had any success within a few months, then the AMH can signal potential problems so that you can address them directly.
“For example, a woman with a low egg reserve might look to freeze some of her healthy eggs now so that she’ll have a greater chance of conceiving through IVF in the years to come.
“Meanwhile women with a family history of early menopause should take the AMH test even sooner, ideally in their early twenties.”
According to recent stats from the British Fertility Society, roughly one in six couples in the UK will experience problems conceiving.
Most women are born with an average of two million eggs to last them a lifetime.
But every month, even during childhood, a woman loses between 55 and 1,500 eggs, as they break down and get reabsorbed into the blood stream.
The decline means that by the time a woman is able to fall pregnant, she only has around 300,000 eggs left.
That number drops dramatically to 70,000 by the time a woman reaches 30-years-old.
And even more worryingly for those struggling to conceive, once the number of eggs falls below 25,000, the number lost per cycle accelerates to an even faster rate.
So by the time a woman reaches the average menopause age of 51, she will have just 1,000 eggs left.
And it’s not just egg quantity that reduces, so too does the quality.
The older the egg the more prone they are to chromosomal damage.
Dr Nardo added: “And so you’re more likely to enjoy a natural, complication-free birth when you’re young.
“If you were to undergo and AMH test and it indicated a low ovarian reserve, that could clearly cause some anxiety.
“But at least you’d know your options, and even if you don’t plan to start a family straight away, you could start making plans to tip the odds back in your favour.”
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The test costs around £150, can be done at any time during the menstrual cycle, and the results are typically returned within 24 hours.
If AMH levels are within the normal range, your ovaries will respond well to medication and boost your chances of having successful IVF.
Women with high AMH levels also have increased chances of having a successful IVF pregnancy than women of the same age with a low AMH content, as well as a good chance of freezing embryos.
Last year Zoe Hardman, former This Morning and Take Me Out: The Gossip presenter, opened up about how the egg timer test indicated she had low levels of AMH.
It prompted the 34-year-old and her partner, Paul Doran Jones, to begin trying for a baby right away and in September she gave birth to daughter, Luna..
She said: “So basically I don’t have many eggs left.
“It felt like a ticking time bomb to me.”