immunology of infertility

what are the immunological factors causing infertility


This discussion is related to immunology test.

[bny807]

I"m not too sure on all of this.. but here is some info i found, it is geared towards miscarriages, but it also make it difficult to concieve (conceive) i think... i do know some people with endometriosis can have a more difficult time getting preg due to immunologic factors! good luck!
  Immune Disorders

While many experienced and well respected reproductive endocrinologists specialize in this field now, many "regular" ob/gyn doctors are quite resistant to the idea of this type of miscarriage cause and its treatment. Specialists in immune disorders claim up to an 80% success rate with women who have had three or more miscarriages, but there is still much skepticism even among infertility and reproductive specialists.

Antiphospholipid antibodies can cause blood clots in the placenta that block or slow down the baby's blood supply, causing growth to slow or the baby to die altogether. Your blood can be tested for these antibodies. These tests are called anticardiolipins or the associated lupus anticoagulant. These are inexpensive tests, and sometimes you can get them after only one miscarriage. If antibody levels are thought to be high enough to affect the pregnancy, treatment involves baby aspirin and sometimes a blood thinner called Heparin. In rare cases, the woman is actually found to have Lupus, which may be mild enough not to affect her, but needs management anyway to protect her pregnancies (see antinuclear antibodies). While a miscarriage due to this problem can happen at any time, often the baby will grow past the first trimester. 10 to 15% of recurring miscarriages are caused by these antibodies.6

Antinuclear antibodies are caused by an auto-immune problem, in Lupus or a Lupus-like syndrome, where the body attacks itself. The treatment for this problem is Prednisone, a corticosteroid, which calms down the inflammatory process of auto-immune disease. Prednisone, however, is really a horrible drug and will cause all sorts of terrible side effects, including swelling, bruise marks on the face, and discomfort. You do not ask for this drug without really needing it.6

Fetal-Blocking Antibodies work to protect the baby from the mother's immune system, which will recognize the father's genetic material as foreign to her body and attack it. When the sperm penetrate the egg, it provides foreign material, but it also contains histocompatibility locus antigens (HLA). The sperm's HLA will "talk" to the mother's HLA, which would normally attack the baby, and stimulate the mother's body to protect the baby. In some cases, however, the father's genetic material is too similar to the mother's. In that case, the mother's response is weak and insufficient to prevent her white blood cells from attacking the new cells. Standard testing for this is not yet available, and you would have be accepted into one of the few elite clinics working in this field. If your tests show you and your partner's DNA to be too similar, you can receive injections of your partner's white blood cells, in hopes of getting enough of his HLA in your system to stimulate a stronger protective response. This is an expensive and controversial tactic, but allegedly (a word I use since there isn't solid 3rd party data to support it) succeeds 80% of the time.7, 42 This type of problem usually causes an early miscarriage, well before 12 weeks, and is often suspected when several miscarriages have occurred at the exact same time in the pregnancy

The average OB/Gyn may not be up to date on these immune issues. Read up on it yourself and find a specialist who can determine if this is a problem that might be affecting your babies. You are not usually a candidate for the more involved testing, which is expensive and not typically covered by insurance