Infertility, as we know and has been defined severally, is the inability of a couple to achieve a Clinical Pregnancy after having constant, timely, unprotected sex for one year or more. It could be primary or secondary.
It is primary when the couple has not conceived before and secondary when the couple have conceived before but are no longer able to.
It affects men and women equally and the main symptom is the inability to get pregnant. Some of the causes of infertility include, age, lifestyle, environmental and occupational factors, excessive exercise, eating disorder, overweight or obesity, poor diet, genetic factors, some medications and therapies, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), endometriosis, ovulation disorder, sexually transmitted infections ( STI), low sperm count, poor motility of sperm, abnormal sperm morphology, hormonal imbalance, abnormalities in the immune system (immunological factors).
ABNORMALITIES IN THE IMMUNE SYSTEM THAT CAN CAUSE INFERTILITY
The immune system is responsible for fighting foreign bodies in the body through the production of antibodies and so when the system can no longer differentiate a “good” foreign body from a “bad” one then there is a problem.
Immunological infertility is a reproductive disorder that affects men and women and thus causes their immune system to wage war on sperm. Women who have been diagnosed with immune infertility usually produce Antisperm Antibodies (ASA) in their reproductive systems.
These antibodies act to neutralize sperm by clumping them together and creating holes in their membranes and thus affect their physical morphology. They also coat over receptors that are involved in sperm-egg binding and fertilization process.
Sperm antibodies may also occur in either male or female partner and can be detected in the blood and/or sexual secretion through agglutination or immobilization using immunobeads. The test can also be done by examination of the ejaculate in the post-coital test; this would help to get some clues on the interactions that exist between spermatozoa and female genital secretions.
Sperm antibodies can cause infertility by disrupting sperm motility or the binding of the egg. They are also present in female sexual secretion which may trap spermatozoa and stop them from moving through the genital tract. It is also very possible to have the presence of cytotoxic antibodies that actually kill the spermatozoa.