Consumer fertility tests: five minutes with . . . Brooke Nickel

“Feminist narratives have been increasingly co-opted or hijacked by commercial entities. Industry, consumer, and advocacy groups and media organisations now promote technology, drugs, or interventions to more women than are likely to benefit. Often these things are not backed by evidence. They overstate the benefits and underplay the harm, and they use precise, persuasive messaging to do so. This really increases the risk of harm through inappropriate medicalisation, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment.“A key example is the anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) test. This is a blood test that indicates the number of eggs left in a woman’s ovaries, and it can be helpful in assisted reproduction. So, it roughly indicates the number of oocytes that will be retrieved during IVF or during egg freezing. It guides expectations in those settings. But studies have consistently found that, for women outside fertility clinic settings, this can’t predict the chances of conceiving or a specific age…
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