Serum Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) in mothers with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and their term fetuses

ABSTRACT

We sought to determine serum AMH levels in the maternal circulation, and the umbilical artery and vein, in normal women and women with PCOS, and their neonates at time of delivery. This represents a cross-sectional study of 57 pregnant patients who presented to the labor and delivery suite and subsequently delivered. We obtained maternal, as well as fetal blood from both, umbilical artery and vein. We measured serum concentrations of estradiol, AMH, testosterone and FSH. A total of 30 patients delivered a female and 27 a male neonate. Of them, 18/30 and 18/27 had a diagnosis of PCOS by NIH criteria. Mean age, BMI, weight gain in pregnancy, and gestational age did not differ between the two groups of mothers. AMH serum levels were statistically higher in women with PCOS (p < 0.005) and in their fetuses, independently of gender. Testosterone was higher in women with PCOS (p < 0.001), but there was no PCOS-related difference in their fetuses. FSH levels were significantly lower in PCOS than non-PCOS mothers carrying a male (p = 0.022), but not a female, fetus. AMH was positively correlated with maternal serum testosterone (p = 0.001) and negatively with fetal serum FSH (p < 0.026). In PCOS pregnancies, AMH was negatively correlated with maternal BMI (p = 0.019), menstrual cycle length (p = 0.035), and fetal uterine vein FSH (p = 0.021). In conclusion, at time of delivery, fetuses of women with PCOS had higher AMH levels and similar testosterone levels compared to fetuses from non-PCOS mothers, irrespective of gender. Our results may help explaining developmental differences in offspring of PCOS women.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02431884.

KEYWORDS:

• PCOS
• AMH
• testosterone
• umbilical cord
• pregnancy

Clinical trial registration

This study is currently registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02431884).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Health Science Center, University of Tennessee Health Science Center [E07-3225-001].

Notes on contributors

Laura Detti

Research idea, statistical analysis, figures, and manuscript writing: LD; Conducted research and manuscript writing: MEC, LF, GM; Conducted research: GI; Manuscript writing: MPD; Conducted research, statistical analysis, and manuscript writing: AMT.