Infertility risk assessment for young women with cancer

For young women confronting the potentially devastating news that they have cancer, one of the looming questions is “what happens to my fertility?” Often times chemotherapy jump starts menopause and infertility results. Being able to discover the potential for her fertility prior to undergoing cancer treatment could make a world of difference to these young women who would like to have families. Researchers out of Scotland have developed a test which may now reveal how many eggs a woman has in her ovaries and predict reproductive function post cancer treatment.

The test is called the anti-Mullerian hormone test or AMH test. It is a simple blood test that measures levels of a hormone that reflect the size of ovarian reserve. This test should be taken as a baseline prior to any kind of fertility treatment. Researchers have discovered that AMH levels are a good indicator of how likely it will be for a woman to still have eggs in her ovaries after chemotherapy.

“Future reproductive function is a concern for many young women with cancer,” said lead investigator Richard Anderson, MD, PhD, professor clinical reproductive science at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. “This test will be of benefit to women with newly diagnosed cancer to help decide whether they need to take steps to preserve their fertility.”

“Our data suggest that the AMH test, taken before4 cancer treatment, can help individualize a woman’s infertility risk after chemotherapy for breast cancer,” Anderson concluded.

Source: The Endocrine Society, Science Daily