RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: A significant number of individuals have high serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels but do not meet the criteria for diagnosis of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) due to ongoing menstruation. We compared a group of women with elevated FSH levels and POI with a control group in terms of biochemical markers. METHODS: In this cross-sectional retrospective study, 38 POI cases and 48 cases of elevated FSH were compared to 89 individuals in a control arm in terms of biochemical markers. The receiver operating characteristics curve was calculated to assess the utility of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels to discriminate women with elevated FSH levels accompanied by POI from those women with elevated FSH levels but not defineable as having POI. RESULTS: A multiple regression analysis revealed that only the AMH level was significantly different for the discrimination between the control and elevated FSH groups. AMH and estradiol levels were found to be statistically significant for the discrimination between control and POI cases. However, only luteinizing hormone (LH) was found to be significant for distinguishing between women with elevated FSH and POI, interestingly excluding the serum AMH level in this context. CONCLUSIONS: AMH was the most important and superior marker to differentiate both POI cases and patients with an elevated FSH level from the controls; however, it did not show the same resolution for differentiating POI cases from those with elevated FSH. Moreover, we conclude that the serum LH level is the most useful marker for differentiating POI cases from women with elevated FSH levels.