title: Relationship of serum antimüllerian hormone concentration to age at menopause.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Serum antimüllerian hormone (AMH) levels are highly correlated with antral follicle counts, while being menstrual cycle independent and easily measurable. However, AMH, unlike antral follicle counts, has not been tested as yet as a predictor of reproductive status. By relating AMH levels to the age distribution of reproductive events like onset of menopause, we tested this hypothesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  AMH levels were measured in 144 fertile normal volunteers and used to determine an estimate of mean AMH as a function of age. Data on the onset of menopause were obtained from the population-based Prospect-European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition [Prospect-EPIC] cohort. Estimation of an AMH threshold to predict menopause was done by maximum likelihood using the observed (Prospect-EPIC) distribution of age at menopause and the predictive distribution from this AMH threshold. Predictions of age at menopause follow from an individual woman's AMH relative to percentiles of the distribution of AMH for a given age, and the corresponding percentiles of the predictive distribution of age at menopause.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was good conformity between the observed distribution of age at menopause and that predicted from declining AMH levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The similarity between observed and predictive distributions of age at menopause supports the hypothesis that AMH levels are related to onset of menopause. Results of this study suggest that AMH is able to specify a woman's reproductive age more realistically than chronological age alone.
authors.affiliation: University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. j.vandisseldorp-2@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Disseldorp
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Faddy
authors.forename: A P N
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Themmen
authors.forename: F H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: P H M
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Peeters
authors.forename: Y T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: van der Schouw
authors.forename: F J M
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Broekmans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000097:blood*; D054304:Anti-Mullerian Hormone / Q000097:blood*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D054304:Anti-Mullerian Hormone