Association between ovarian reserve and preeclampsia: a cohort study

The risk of cardiovascular disease in women increases after menopause. It has been shown that women with lower pre-menopausal ovarian reserve may experience increased cardiovascular risk. We sought to determine whether there is any association between ovarian reserve, as assessed by Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH), and preeclampsia (PE).

Subjects of this study were selected from among participants of the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS), a population-based cohort with a 15-year follow-up (1998-2014). Out of 2412 women aged 20-50 years, there were 781 women who met eligibility criteria, including having comprehensive data on their reproductive assessment and ovarian reserve status, identified based on age-specific AMH levels according to the exponential-normal three-parameter model that was measured before pregnancy. There were 80 and 701 participants in the preeclampsia and non-PE groups, respectively. The association between dichotomous outcome variable PE and age-specific AMH quartiles was evaluated using pooled logistic regression.

PE was observed in 23 (11.1%), 12 (6.4%), 26 (13.3%) and 19 (10%) women in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th quartiles of pre-pregnancy age-specific AMH, respectively (P = 0.16). Median and inter-quartile range of serum AMH levels was 1.05 (0.36-2.2) mg/L in women who experienced PE compared with 0.85 (0.28-2.1) mg/L in women with normotensive pregnancies (P = 0.53). Based on the pooled logistic regression analysis, the effect of age-specific AMH quartiles on PE progression (adjusted for age, BMI, smoking status, and family history of hypertension) were not significant (OR_{1st vs 4th}: 1.5, P-value: 0.1, CI: (0.9, 2.4)).

Age-specific AMH may not be a suitable marker for prediction of PE. Further longitudinal studies, considering pre-conception measurement of AMH, are recommended for better interpretation of the association between ovarian reserve status and PE.