Just how important is your egg count for fertility?

Story highlights A study finds no significant link between reduced fertility and the biomarkers that indicate having fewer eggs Age, possibly genetics, and other factors can play a role in fertility, experts say CNN — Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, a San Francisco-based reproductive endocrinologist, sees it almost everyday in her practice. Yet “a hormone level can never tell you that you can or cannot get pregnant,” Eyvazzadeh said, adding that there is more to fertility than a patient’s FSH and AMH levels. “Our findings challenge the clinical assumption that diminished ovarian reserve is a cause of infertility, but these findings are important for women,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Anne Steiner, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and physician at UNC Fertility. Some women may also use such tests to guide their decision-making about freezing eggs,” she said, adding, “Age still remains the best predictor of a woman’s reproductive potential.” Infertility is typically defined as not being able to get pregnant after one year or longer of unprotected sex, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the new study suggests, “biomarker tests showing diminished ovarian reserve do not necessarily predict fertility among women without infertility – that being said, fertility decreases with age in all women independent of ovarian reserve testing,” Kawwass said.