The main way to estimate how many eggs you have left is through a blood test that measures a hormone called AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone). Your ovaries produce this hormone, and higher levels signal a larger remaining supply of eggs. The test is simple, can be done on any day of your cycle, and results typically come back within a few days.
How Your Egg Count Changes Over Time
You’re born with all the eggs you’ll ever have. Most girls start with about 2 million eggs at birth. By adolescence, that number has already dropped to roughly 400,000. By age 37, about 25,000 remain. This decline continues until menopause, when the supply is essentially gone.
Your body doesn’t make new eggs. Instead, each month a group of eggs begins maturing, one (sometimes two) gets released during ovulation, and the rest break down. This happens whether or not you’re on birth control, pregnant, or doing anything at all. The loss is constant and accelerates in your mid-to-late 30s.
What the AMH Test Actually Measures
AMH is produced by the small sacs (follicles) inside your ovaries that hold immature eggs. The more follicles you have, the more AMH shows up in your blood. So while the test doesn’t literally count your eggs one by one, it gives a reliable estimate of your ovarian reserve, which is the medical term for how many eggs you have left.
In healthy people of childbearing age, AMH levels fall along a predictable curve:
- Age 25: around 3.0 ng/mL
- Age 30: around 2.5 ng/mL
- Age 35: around 1.5 ng/mL
- Age 40: around 1.0 ng/mL
These numbers represent the lower end of average for each age. General ranges across all ages classify anything between 1.0 and 3.0 ng/mL as average, under 1.0 as low, and 0.4 or below as severely low. Your doctor will interpret your result in context of your age, since a 1.0 reading means something different at 28 than it does at 42.
Other Ways to Assess Your Reserve
AMH isn’t the only tool. An antral follicle count (AFC) uses a transvaginal ultrasound to directly count the small follicles visible in your ovaries early in your cycle. This gives a snapshot of how many eggs are getting ready to develop that month, and it correlates well with AMH levels. Many fertility specialists use both tests together for a more complete picture.
A third option is measuring FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) on day 3 of your period. When your egg supply drops, your brain has to produce more FSH to stimulate the ovaries. So a high FSH level can signal a diminishing reserve. FSH is less precise than AMH because it fluctuates throughout your cycle and from month to month, but it still adds useful information.
Birth Control Can Affect Your Results
If you’re on hormonal contraception, your AMH reading may come back artificially low. A large study of over 27,000 people found that combined oral contraceptive pills lowered AMH levels by about 24%, progestin-only pills by about 15%, and hormonal IUDs by about 7%. The hormonal IUD’s effect was small enough that researchers considered it clinically insignificant.
Copper IUDs, which don’t release hormones, had no meaningful impact on AMH levels. If you’re planning to get tested and you’re on a combined pill, your doctor may suggest waiting a few months after stopping to get a more accurate reading, though this isn’t always necessary depending on the clinical situation.
At-Home Tests vs. Clinic Tests
Several companies now sell at-home AMH kits that use a finger-prick blood sample mailed to a lab. These can give you a general sense of where you stand, but they come with caveats. User error during sample collection can throw off results, and these tests may deliver false positives or false negatives. An at-home test telling you everything looks fine doesn’t carry the same weight as a clinical result.
In-office testing remains the gold standard because it’s more comprehensive. A clinic visit typically combines a blood draw with imaging and a physical exam, giving a fuller picture than a single hormone level alone. If you start with an at-home test and get a result that concerns you, or even one that reassures you, following up with a fertility specialist is worth it for confirmation.
Why Egg Count Isn’t the Whole Story
A common misconception is that more eggs automatically means better fertility. That’s not how it works. Egg quality matters just as much as quantity, and the two don’t always move together.
As you age, the DNA inside your eggs becomes more prone to chromosomal abnormalities. These abnormalities make it harder for an egg to be fertilized successfully, develop into a viable embryo, or sustain a pregnancy. Someone in their early 40s might still have a reasonable number of eggs remaining, but a lower percentage of those eggs will be genetically normal compared to someone in their late 20s. This is why age remains the single strongest predictor of fertility, even more than AMH levels.
Poor egg quality can also lead to higher miscarriage rates. So a reassuringly high AMH result doesn’t guarantee easy conception, and a lower-than-expected result doesn’t mean pregnancy is impossible. The AMH test tells you about supply. It can’t tell you about the health of any individual egg.
When Testing Makes the Most Sense
Not everyone needs an AMH test. It’s most useful if you’re thinking about timing for pregnancy, considering egg freezing, or about to start fertility treatment like IVF (where knowing your reserve helps determine medication dosing and likely response). It’s also helpful if you have risk factors for low ovarian reserve, such as a family history of early menopause, prior ovarian surgery, or certain autoimmune conditions.
If you’re simply curious, the test is easy to get. Many OB-GYNs will order it on request, and some fertility clinics offer it as part of a baseline assessment. The blood draw itself takes minutes, and results are straightforward to interpret with a provider who can put the number in context with your age, health history, and goals.