Home fertility tests may not be reliable predictors of a woman's ability to get pregnant, researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have found.

The group, led by Dr. Anne Z. Steiner, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, found that the do-it-yourself kits often indicated women would have difficulties, yet many had no problem conceiving.

"Although the tests are out there, this is the first study that asks, can these tests be used to measure potential fertility?" Steiner said.

Like a pregnancy test, a home fertility detector uses a chemically treated strip that reacts to hormones in the urine and displays a reading. It measures follicle stimulating hormone, or FSH, a chemical produced in the pituitary gland in the brain that helps stimulate the growth of eggs in the ovaries.

Readings above a certain level are supposed to signal that a woman may be infertile.

Steiner's group found that abnormal FSH levels did not correlate to reduced fertility among the women who participated in the study.

"When we have larger numbers of women in the study, we will be able to look at how many women conceived in a year despite an abnormal test value," Steiner said.

Her findings result from a small trial of about 100 women in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area who were older than 30. McClatchy Newspapers