It is essential that treatment for immune infertility is controlled by a specialist, or a team specialized in reproductive immunology. Each woman is an exceptional case, because there are different alterations of the immune system, and many of them can affect male or female fertility, or both. The truth is that this type of infertility is more common in women than in men.
To give you some of the possibilities about the treatments that exist, we wrote this article. But remember the fundamental premise: the treatment must be prescribed and it is the specialists who will recommend the best one in your case.
What is immune infertility? Types
Some Immune system disorders and certain autoimmune diseases can be cause infertility. About 20% of cases of infertility of unknown origin are due to some type of immune disorder.
Immune infertility manifests itself in different ways: it can destroy the gametes themselves, prevent the implantation of the embryo or cause spontaneous abortions in a repetitive way. The most common form of immunological infertility is the creation of antisperm antibodies, but we can also find diagnoses of antiphospholipid syndrome, hereditary thrombophilias, or alloimmune infertility, being celiac ...
What happens, explained in simple words is that the embryo has a different immune system than the mother, since it is also made up of genes from the father. These genes are unknown to the mother's immune system, who can attack him and finish him off. For the pregnancy to come to fruition, the mother's immune system has to develop a tolerance mechanism so as not to attack the embryo, this is done through the HLA G antigen that suppresses the cells of the immune system, in the uterus and allows baby's development.
Some treatments for immune infertility
If you have been trying to get pregnant for a long time, or are having a series of spontaneous abortions, the most common is that the doctor submits you to a series of tests. If the diagnosis is immunological infertility, depending on the type, one treatment will be more recommended than another. Be that as it may, patience and a positive attitude, in this difficult situation they will be your best allies.
If you have been diagnosed that you produce antisperm antibodies, Depending on its location and its severity, they will recommend artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, with this last technique the sperm is introduced directly into the ovum and any possibility of interaction with the antibodies is eliminated.
If diagnosed hereditary thrombophilias, genetic alterations do not have to have any serious impact on the health of women, but it is possible that during pregnancy, clots that form in the blood reach the placenta and block the development of the fetus. For a pregnancy to be evolutionary, women usually follow a treatment with acetylsalicylic acid, which are aspirin, and heparin throughout the pregnancy.
Treatment for a high number of Natural Killer cells
When the woman's immune system does not recognize the embryo as its own, in women there are a high number of killer cells, (NK). These are a type of lymphocytes capable of destroying organisms that you do not recognize as part of your body. This is why it is so important to put yourself in the hands of a reproductive immunologist who has the training and skills to determine if there is an immune response that causes the pregnancy to not come to fruition.
If this is your case, we must tell you that the possible treatments are under investigation. But science advances faster than you think. And there are already some important advances.
Among the options proposed by specialists is the use of corticoids. This would be the most widespread treatment due to its immunomodulatory role and a profile with fewer associated risks than the other treatments. But remember, each woman and each case is unique.