Anti-Müllerian hormone levels in nurses working night shifts

Abstract

Our objective was to examine associations between night shift work and serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels. We analyzed 1,537 blood samples from premenopausal female nurses in the Nurses’ Health Study II, assayed for AMH. Rotating or permanent night shifts worked in the two weeks before blood collection and years of rotating night shift work were obtained via questionnaire. We found no associations between recent night shifts or rotating night shift work and AMH. The median difference in AMH was 0.3 (95% CI: -0.4, 0.8) ng/mL for ≥5 versus 0 recent night shifts and -0.1 (95% CI: -0.4, 0.3) ng/mL for ≥6 versus 0 years of rotating night shift work. Although we found no associations between night shift work and AMH, this does not preclude associations between night shift work and fertility operating through other mechanisms.

Keywords:

• Anti-Mullerian hormone
• nurses
• Nurses' Health Study
• ovarian reserve
• shift work

Acknowledgements

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The authors wish to thank the Nurses’ Health Study II participants for their generous time and dedication to the study and Eileen Lividoti Hibert for invaluable assistance and support in the development of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

None declared.

Funding

Funding for this work was provided by grants OH009803, R01CA67262, R01CA178949, R01HD078517, and UM1CA17626 from the National Institutes of Health and by contract number 200-2015-M-61780 to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.