Anti-mullerian hormone concentration during the third trimester of pregnancy and puerperium: a longitudinal case–control study in normal and diabetic pregnancy

Abstract

To assess if anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) concentrations decrease during the third trimester of pregnancy and puerperium and whether this is correlated to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). AMH serum concentrations were determined by ELISA, with lowest detection limit of 0.08 ng/ml, during the third trimester of pregnancy and puerperium in 34 patients with GDM and in 32 healthy control pregnant women. Three blood samples were collected at 28-32, 34-36 weeks' gestation and 40 days after delivery, respectively. No differences in AMH concentration between GDM and healthy pregnant women were found at any follow-up time. On the contrary, significant differences in delta AMH values between the first and the second sample (p < 0.0001), the second and the third sample (p < 0.0001), and the first and the third sample (p = 0.004) were found in both groups. The multivariate analysis showed that maternal age was not correlated to delta AMH variations. The analysis of AMH concentrations did not show a significant relationship with body mass index-variation, newborn and placental weight, and GDM, while only maternal age was significantly correlated with AMH concentrations in all blood samples. A significant decrease in AMH values was observed during the third trimester of pregnancy and this was independent on maternal age. GDM does not seem to influence the AMH concentrations during pregnancy and after delivery.

A pilot longitudinal study of anti‐Müllerian hormone levels throughout gestation in low risk pregnancy

“…Prior studies of AMH in pregnancy have considered a mix of study samples and used different approaches . Using a cross‐sectional approach among 84 women, no significant differences were observed in AMH levels compared among those in the first trimester (n = 27), in second trimester (n = 21), in the third trimester (n = 13), and a nonpregnant (n = 15) group .…”

“…In contrast, cross‐sectional comparison of AMH levels among 554 women by trimester and postpartum suggested that levels decline over pregnancy and rapidly rise in the postpartum period . Decreasing AMH has been observed in the first few weeks of gestation among women seeking fertility care ( n = 85), and declines in AMH have been observed late in pregnancy in a prospective study of women with and without GDM during the third trimester, with significant decreases between 28 to 32 and 34 to 36 weeks of gestation …”

“…Although well established as a biomarker of fecundability, few studies have described AMH levels during pregnancy, and there is some uncertainty regarding how levels vary across gestation in healthy pregnancies. The limited studies of AMH in pregnancy include cross‐sectional comparisons, assessment in women seeking fertility treatment, assessment in women with gestational diabetes, and evaluation in healthy women by using biospecimens collected once each trimester . To further evaluate variation in AMH levels over gestation and between women in pregnancy, we used data from a prospective pregnancy study with longitudinal biospecimen collection from women with singleton normal pregnancies.…”

Anti-Müllerian hormone kinetics in pregnancy and post-partum: a systematic review

“…In two out of eight studies the association between AMH and gestational age was specifically evaluated (Köninger et al, 2013;La Marca et al, 2005). In the remaining six studies the association of AMH with fetal aneuploidy (n = 2) (Li et al, 2010;Plante et al, 2010), gestational diabetes mellitus (n = 1) (Gerli et al, 2015), fetal sex (n = 1) (Santillan et al, 2012), pre-term birth (n = 1) (Stegmann et al, 2015) and maternal adiposity (n = 1) (Nelson et al, 2010) was examined. Some of these studies reported AMH data separately for case and control groups and these data have also been extracted separately, where available.…”

“…before term (n = 105) whilst the control group included women of white race who delivered at term (n = 95). In the study by Gerli et al (2015) the cases group included women with gestational diabetes (n = 34) and the control group was comprised of women with healthy, singleton pregnancies, without gestational diabetes mellitus (n = 32). In the study by Li et al (2010) the cases group included women with pregnancies affected by Down syndrome (n = 145) and the control group included women with pregnancies not affected by Down syndrome (n = 290).…”