Longitudinal anti-müllerian hormone in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: an acupuncture randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Others have studied acupuncture treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) is positively correlated with the ovarian follicle pool, thus making it a useful ovarian reserve measure. AMH is elevated in women with PCOS and has been suggested as a diagnostic tool. This study examined the impact of electroacupuncture on AMH concentration in women with PCOS. Seventy-one women with PCOS participated in a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical trial of acupuncture. Three longitudinal AMH samples over the 5-month protocol were compared with objective ovulation parameters primarily using nonparametric statistics. Results indicated that AMH levels in PCOS were higher than published norms in women without PCOS. There was no difference between the true and sham acupuncture arms in the change in AMH longitudinally. Baseline AMH, but not the change in AMH over time, was inversely correlated with ovulation and menstrual cycle frequencies in both arms combined (P < 0.001). In conclusion, AMH correlated with an increased likelihood of monthly ovulation, as expected from the literature on women without PCOS. The lack of difference by intervention in AMH was consistent with the underlying clinical trial. AMH may be clinically useful to predict which PCOS women are more likely to respond to an intervention.

Figure 1

Flowchart of study participation.

Figure 2

Preintervention log-transformed AMH concentration by age in PCOS women.

Figure 3

Preintervention AMH concentration (ng/mL) by age in PCOS women and compared to Seifer et al.'s [6] population of 17,120 women.