# Study of Ovarian Aging and Reserve in Young Women (SOAR)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $605,403

## Abstract

The average age for a woman to have her first child has been increasing for the last three decades in the
United States, making our understanding of ovarian aging and its negative effect on the ovarian reserve—a
measure of the capacity of the ovary to produce eggs capable of fertilization—increasingly important. Yet, we
know very little about other factors in reproductive-age women that might affect the ovarian reserve, beyond
aging itself. This proposal, titled Study of Ovarian Aging and Reserve in Young Women (SOAR), seeks to
address the significant gap in our knowledge of factors—particularly modifiable factors—that affect ovarian
reserve and might accelerate its decrease in young women. To achieve this goal, we will leverage the ongoing
NIEHS Study of Environment, Lifestyle and Fibroids (SELF), which is following a cohort of 1,696 African-
American women between the ages of 23-34 years over a five-year period. In this group of young women, we
will assess changes in the ovarian reserve by tracking three different measures of the ovarian reserve: anti-
Müllerian hormone (AMH), early follicular phase follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and antral follicle count
(AFC). In addition to collecting survey data, we will also perform oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) and
anthropometric and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) measurements to more precisely determine the
roles of glucose metabolism and obesity on the ovarian reserve. The results of our study will be clinically
significant as we currently have limited longitudinal data for counseling women on risk factors for decreased
ovarian reserve. Our study design is innovative in that we will use overlapping measures of the ovarian reserve
and group-based trajectory modeling to determine correlates associated with decreased ovarian reserve.
Specifically, we will determine the demographic, health-behavior, reproductive, and environmental factors
associated with decreased AMH (as a measure of the ovarian reserve) over time (Aim 1), determine the
association between various measures of obesity and decreased ovarian reserve (Aim 2), and determine the
association between glucose dysregulation and decreased ovarian reserve (Aim 3). The proposed prospective
longitudinal cohort study will determine the natural history of and factors associated with the change in ovarian
reserve over time. Further, it will add to the extremely limited data by generating the largest set of longitudinal
data on AMH and ovarian reserve in the United States to date, which will benefit all women.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9859422
- **Project number:** 5R01HD088638-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Erica E Marsh
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $605,403
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-06-15 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9859422

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9859422, Study of Ovarian Aging and Reserve in Young Women (SOAR) (5R01HD088638-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9859422. Licensed CC0.

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