One in ten women suffer from premature ovarian ageing (POA), which can impact on their desire to be a mother or to have more children if not detected early.
The condition means sufferers have fewer eggs than normal at any given age, but a new test designed by The Centre for Human Reproduction in New York can help warn those at risk.
Called ‘What’s My Fertility?’, women aged between 18 and 35 can take the test, and anyone who is at high risk would be advised to either freeze their eggs or try for a baby.
Explaining the reasoning behind the development of the system, Dr Norbert Gleicher, Medical Director and Chief Scientist of The Centre for Human Reproduction, said: “After treating infertility in women for decades and hearing them tell us time and time again that they wished they had known of the risk of POA so that they could have planned for a family sooner, we were determined to find a better way to proactively identify POA in young women.”
“This is the first risk screening program for POA that detects future risk of developing POA. Rather than diagnosing women when they already suffer from this condition, What’s My Fertility identifies women who are at risk, so they can prevent this condition from affecting their family plans.”
While the clinics are in the US, women in England can request hormone results from a GP and enter them into the ‘I have my labs’ option in the online questionnaire.
However, British experts are warning people that there are many other reasons for infertility, saying: "AMH levels can give you an indication of how many eggs are there, but can’t tell you if they are healthy."
“It could lead to women making choices they would not have made or even putting off motherhood until it is too late because they think they are not at risk.”
