Ovarian reserve evaluation: state of the art.

Purpose: Revise role of hormonal basal and dynamic tests, as well as ultrasonographic measures as ovarian reserve markers, in order to provide better counseling to subfertile couples.

Methods: Review of publications on the topic, with an emphasis on recent well designed articles.

Results: Currently available ovarian reserve tests do not provide sufficient evidence to be solely considered ideal, even for premature ovarian senescence patients who do not present subfertility complaints. However, these markers occupy important place in initial approach to treatment of subfertile couples, predicting unsatisfactory results that could be improved by differentiated induction schemes and reducing excessive psychological and financial burdens, and adverse effects.

Conclusions: In order to remedy the limitations due to the scarcity of strong evidence about this topic, future studies should try to clarify predictive value of markers in groups of specific diseases-related subfertility and pay special attention to propaedeutic multivariate models including anti-Müllerian hormone and antral follicle count.