Male AMH Levels Show Weak but Significant Links to Sperm Count and Motility

The findings, published in Frontiers in Endocrinology, suggest that AMH carries some statistical signal about sperm production and movement, but the authors themselves caution that the signal is weak and its clinical usefulness remains unproven. The research team, led by Huafang Kou, Chengyan Gui, Fang Liu and Xiangyue Sheng of the Department of Clinical Laboratory at Chengdu Qingyang District Maternal and Child Health Hospital, enrolled 145 male participants undergoing pre-pregnancy genetic health examinations. Each man provided a semen sample and a blood sample.

Semen parameters, including sperm kinetics, were measured with computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA), while serum AMH was detected using chemiluminescence immunoassay. The median serum AMH level in the cohort was 8.79 nanograms per millilitre, with an interquartile range spanning 5.25 to 11.25 nanograms per millilitre. The strongest association was with total sperm count, at a correlation coefficient of 0.268, followed by the total count of progressively motile sperm at 0.225 and sperm concentration at 0.219.

All three reached conventional statistical significance, with P values between 0.001 and 0.008. The kinetic parameters told a subtler story. AMH was positively correlated with curvilinear velocity (VCL, r = 0.196), straight-line velocity (VSL, r = 0.179), average path velocity (VAP, r = 0.164) and straightness (STR, r = 0.165), with P values ranging from 0.018 to 0.049.

These coefficients, while statistically significant, describe relationships that explain only a small fraction of the variance in any given semen measure. To test whether these correlations were genuine or merely reflections of underlying demographic and behavioural factors, the team turned to multivariate linear regression. Age and days of sexual abstinence before sample collection, both recognised influences on semen parameters in this analysis, were included as confounding variables.

After adjustment, AMH remained independently associated with total sperm count (β = 0.549, P < 0.001), total progressively motile sperm count (β = 0.584, P < 0.001) and curvilinear velocity (β = 0.572, P = 0.005). Yet the authors are careful not to overstate the case. In their conclusion, they describe the correlations as weak but statistically significant and note that the overall explanatory power of the models was limited.

They suggest that serum AMH may have a role as an adjunctive biomarker in male fertility assessment, a test that could complement rather than replace conventional semen analysis, but they explicitly state that its clinical utility is uncertain given the weak strength of the associations. In other words, no one should expect an AMH blood draw to substitute for a semen sample in the fertility clinic any time soon. Several limitations frame how the results should be read.

The cohort consisted of 145 men from a single district in Chengdu attending preconception checkups, a group that may differ from the general male population or from men presenting to infertility clinics. The authors call for large-scale prospective studies to validate the findings and to determine whether AMH adds incremental value beyond the parameters already captured by standard semen analysis and CASA. The answer from Qingyang District is a qualified perhaps, with correlations that are real in the statistical sense but too faint, on their own, to change clinical practice.

Subject of Research: Correlation between serum anti-Müllerian hormone levels and semen quality in men undergoing preconception health checkups

Article Title: A study on the correlation between serum anti-Müllerian hormone levels in male participants of pre-pregnancy genetic health checkup in Qingyang District, Chengdu City

Article References: Kou, H., Gui, C., Liu, F., & Sheng, X. (2026). A study on the correlation between serum anti-Müllerian hormone levels in male participants of pre-pregnancy genetic health checkup in Qingyang District, Chengdu City. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 17, 1931330. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2026.1931330

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2026.1931330

Keywords: anti-Müllerian hormone, male fertility, semen quality, sperm kinetics, preconception checkup, CASA, chemiluminescence immunoassay, Spearman correlation, cross-sectional study, reproductive endocrinology, correlation, between