By Abayomi Ajayi

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the role that the immune system plays in fertility. The immune system generally works to protect the body from foreign cells and bacteria. Sometimes though, problems within the immune system prevent it from working properly.

Many couples facing infertility issues may actually have immune system dysfunction, which is preventing them from conceiving. Luckily, new tests are now available to pinpoint these immune factors in infertility. Let us begin by looking at the immune system which consists of a variety of cells and tissues that help to defend you against invading cells and foreign bacteria.

It can recongnize the difference between your body’s own cells and those cells that aren’t meant to be inside of you. Without your immune system, you couldn’t fight off things like illness, pain, or infection. In most people, the immune system works properly all the time.

Sometimes however, the system can break down, leaving you open to illness, infection, or various autoimmune diseases. You may not realize it, but your immune system also plays a huge role in your fertility. For instance in order to prepare for ovulation and implantation, your body needs to use certain cells from your immune system. Things like inflammatory cells are needed to help prepare the endometrial lining for implantation.

Without a working immune system, normal reproduction caabe affected, preventing pregnancy. Up to 20 per cent of of couples with unexplained infertility could actually be suffering from an immune system dysfunction. Now, antisperm antibodies are one immune factor which could be involved in infertility. Antisperm antibodies are cells that fight against normal, healthy sperm.

If you have antisperm antibodies, instead of seeing sperm as natural cells, your immune system fights against your sperm and destroys them. This prevents you from produc ing any viable sperm. Though still to be proven, there is evidence that antibodies against sperm can result in male infertility. So how do antisperm anitbodies affect fertility? Antisperm antibodies can really impair the function of healthy sperm.

These antibodies attach to sperm, reducing motility and making it more difficult for sperm to pass through cervical mucus. Antisperm antibodies can also force sperm to clump together, making it difficult for sperm to fertilise an egg. Normally, our bodies develop antibodies to help protect our immune system against illnesses. However, sometimes our bodies develop antibodies to the wrong thing, which can cause negative repercussions.

Among infertile men, about 10 per cent will be diagnosed with having antisperm antibodies, a condition that can significantly decrease your chances of pregnancy. Why antisperm antibodies develop in some men is still a mystery. Typically, sperm are protected from the immune system by a protective lining, called the blood-testes barrier.

This barrier prevents cells from a man’s immune system from getting mixed in with his sperm and killing them. Sometimes, surgery or injury can interfere with this barrier, allowing immune cells to come into contact with sperm cells.