What does immune infertility mean?

Various types of infertility are important factors that prevent a family from becoming happy. There are many factors that lead to infertility. Some are well-known, while others are not well understood by many people. For example, many people do not know about immune infertility. When this type of infertility is diagnosed, we need to learn as much as possible about the condition, which will give us more help during the treatment process. So, what does immune infertility mean? Let’s take a look below.

What is immune infertility?

Immune infertility is a common type of female infertility. Generally speaking, it refers to infertility caused by normal ovulation and reproductive tract function of the patient, no pathogenic factors found, and routine semen examination of the spouse is within the normal range, but there is evidence of anti-fertility immunity.

There are many types of this disease, but most are caused by autoimmunity or alloimmunity to reproductive system antigens. Reproductive system antigens such as sperm, seminal plasma, zona pellucida and ovaries can produce autoimmunity or alloimmunity under certain circumstances, generating corresponding antibodies that hinder the combination of sperm and egg and lead to infertility. The production of anti-sperm antibodies is one of the common ones.

Therefore, immune infertility is a relative concept, which means that immunity reduces fertility and temporarily leads to infertility. Whether the infertility state can persist depends on the interaction between immunity and fertility. If immunity is stronger than fertility, infertility occurs; if the latter is stronger than the former, pregnancy occurs.

Types and causes of immune infertility

The most direct cause of this type of infertility is the "close contact" between the immune system and the reproductive system. Depending on the way of contact, we can roughly divide it into the following categories:

1. Anti-sperm antibodies

Although male sperm is a substance of different origin to female, under normal circumstances, sperm and eggs in the female reproductive system cannot come into contact with immune-related substances such as blood and lymph, and naturally will not produce specific antibodies. However, if a woman's reproductive organs become inflamed, damaged, or if sperm and semen overflow locally, they may be marked as "dangerous substances" by the immune system, which will produce antibodies that patrol the body and are ready to eliminate sperm at any time. Some women may be allergic to their spouse's sperm due to genetics or endocrine disorders, and they will also produce anti-sperm antibodies. However, such patients are relatively rare, accounting for less than 20%.

Once sperm appears in the body, anti-sperm antibodies will hunt them down indiscriminately, and few sperm can escape, let alone find the egg.

2. Local immunity

This immunity refers to the presence of cells with immune functions in a certain part of the uterus, or the presence of immunoglobulins in the cervical secretions. Both of these reasons may cause the body to become immune to sperm, produce endometrial antibodies, and so on. However, since it does not come into direct contact with the immune system and does not form a systemic immune response, it is called local immunity.

3. Autoimmunity

This refers to the female immune system killing the reproductive cells in her body. If women's eggs, hormones and other secretions accidentally overflow into the reproductive tract, it is likely to cause an autoimmune reaction and affect egg production and development.