Fertility tests in a box are unreliable say experts

October 20, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: News, Pregnancy

fertell High Street fertility tests, such as the one’s produced by Fertell and available off-the-shelf or purchased online are unreliable in estimating childbearing years left, experts claim. They were valuable however for women undergoing IVF.

Women increasingly use either the blood or urine test to see how long they can continue their careers without having children. Tests do show how many eggs a woman has remaining, but they don’t reveal the quality or other underlying barriers to conception. Blocked Fallopian tubes, a major cause of infertility are also not part of the, “high street” test.

The tests measure the levels of Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) which triggers the development of immature eggs in the ovaries and levels of the hormone fluctuate during a normal menstrual cycle. Levels also rise during the menopause, when the body tries to stimulate the ovaries into producing more oestrogen to compensate for a natural fall in levels of the hormone. Unexpectedly high or low levels of FSH in women of a fertile age may indicate fertility or hormonal problems.

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine conference in Atlanta was the venue for Dr Todd Deutch, managing director of the Advanced Fertility Centre in Chicago, to unveil the findings yesterday. Dr Deutch concluding that the tests can be useful in IVF because they can determine why some women have difficulty in conceiving.

Dr Deutch said however this did not mean they were useful for women who want to conceive naturally, saying we should be “very, very careful in extrapolating this data to women not undergoing IVF.

“These tests don’t tell the whole story,

“Even if both tests are normal, the live birth rate is 50 to 60 per cent - it’s not 100 per cent. Both tests being normal by no means guarantees that a woman won’t have any problems conceiving.

“For example, a woman could suffer other problems like blocked fallopian tubes, or her partner may have a problem.”

The research team found levels were abnormal in just 2.5 per cent of IVF cycles. However, in the abnormal group miscarriage rates were extremely high and pregnancy rates extremely low, given the age of the patients.

Dr Deutch said: ‘We found that if the FSH level was abnormal the live birth rate fell to 35 per cent.’ This showed the tests were valuable for women undergoing IVF.

A spokeswoman from Infertility Network UK, Susan Seenan said: ‘We would stress that women should be careful not to rely solely on home test results as an accurate indicator of future fertility and would recommend to all couples that if they have any concerns about their fertility they speak to the GP for further investigations.

Women under 35 who have had trouble conceiving for a year or more can see their GP and will be invited for further fertility tests.