Background

Antimüllerian hormone, the most reliable biomarker of ovarian reserve, is widely used in various clinical situations. Antimüllerian hormone levels consistently decrease with age. However, there is no standard, age-specific reference values for antimüllerian hormone in women of reproductive age, which limits its application.

Objective

This study aimed to establish age-specific antimüllerian hormone percentile reference values for women of reproductive age.

Study Design

A nationwide, population-based cross-sectional survey was conducted between May 2019 and April 2021 in 15 provinces and municipalities in mainland China. A total of 10,053 eligible women aged 20 to 49 years were selected using a multistage stratified sampling procedure. Women who were pregnant, had undergone ovarian surgery, took hormone drugs in the past 3 months, or had an antimüllerian hormone outlier value were excluded from establishing antimüllerian hormone percentile reference values. Serum antimüllerian hormone concentrations were measured using ultrasensitive, 2-site enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (Ansh Lab, Webster, TX) in the Reproductive Endocrinology Laboratory of Peking University Third Hospital. Generalized additive models for location scale and shape with the Box-Cox t original distribution were used to estimate the fitted antimüllerian hormone percentile reference values.

Results

A total of 9112 eligible women aged 21 to 49 years were included in the fitting model. The fitted 50th (2.5th–97.5th) percentiles of antimüllerian hormone values for women aged 21, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 49 years were 4.83 (0.79–18.41), 4.47 (0.72–16.58), 3.67 (0.50–13.82), 2.59 (0.24–10.35), 1.35 (0.05–6.68), 0.33 (<0.01 to 3.40), and 0.04 (<0.01 to 1.77) ng/mL, respectively. The population-based decline rate of antimüllerian hormone accelerated with increasing age, especially age >35 years. The magnitude of the decline of the 25th antimüllerian hormone percentile curve was greater than that of the 75th percentile curve.

Conclusion

This study established age-specific antimüllerian hormone percentile reference values for women of reproductive age based on a large representative sample of the general population and described antimüllerian hormone changes. These findings may facilitate antimüllerian hormone application in clinical practices.