The Immune System and Fertility

The immune system and fertility

The immune system is essential for maintaining health and offering the possibility of creating a new life. It protects the body from invaders or rogue cells that can cause disease, as well as enables growth and development.

The immune system needs to be relatively balanced between seeking unhealthy cells (aggression) and protecting healthy cells (suppression). If the immune balance is too suppressed, unhealthy cells will avoid detection, but if it’s too aggressive, healthy tissue will be removed.

The immune system is constantly in action, and on average adults between 50 to 70 billion old or damaged cells are removed and upcycled a day. Recycling unhealthy or old cells is essential for our health and enables the body to repair and change structures when needed. Doing this is crucial, especially in puberty and pregnancy when the body restructures on a large scale.

The immune system has two frameworks:

(1) The innate immune system

The immune we’re born with is called innate, and it’s the body’s first line of defence. At its most simple, this includes the protection our skin gives us. Tears, saliva, and mucus that line the digestive tract and lungs trap possible threats to the body and help protect us.
If bacteria or viruses enter the body, white blood cells called “leukocytes”, “macrophages”, and “neutrophils” destroy them. These white blood cells aren’t specific to diseases but recognise “self” or “non-self” markers on cell walls and remove all cells without “self” markers.

(2) The acquired immune system

The acquired immune system has to be “learnt” from experience, where the body recognises potential threats because the person’s either been exposed to (or immunised against) the illness before. The exception to this general rule is a baby can inherit an acquired immune response from their mother. This response requires specialist cell types:

B cells from the bone marrow.
T cells from the thymus gland next to the heart.

The advantage of acquired immune system responses is a rapid and specific reaction to a recognised threat. Being able to respond quickly and effectively to threats requires an acquired immune system, which involves antibodies and antigens.

Antibodies and Antigens

‘Antibodies’ are types of proteins (also known as ‘immunoglobins’ (Ig) produced by the B cells and identify antigens.
‘Antigens’ are other proteins, usually found on foreign objects like bacteria and viruses (but can also be hormones). They’re called ‘antigens’ because they stimulate antibody generation.
An exact match exists between the structure of an antibody and its antigen, which enables the antibody to physically bind to the foreign body, like a lock and key.
The antibody “tags” its antigen by attaching to it, and white blood cells recognise and respond to the antigen, which often means destroying the tagged object.
Antibodies have “codes” for their antigen receptors (called “clusters of differentiation” or “CD“. There are hundreds of known CDs, and a single antibody can have several CDs.

When an infectious foreign substance (with antigens on it) enters the body, B cells are “primed” to make antibodies that will tag it. Once the antibody that perfectly matches the antigens is found, it will be produced in large numbers to focus the immune response to this threat.

A successful antibody can remain in the body for a long time. If exposed to this illness again, the body can rapidly produce a multitude of antibodies that stop the infection. The antibody is “stored” for any further attacks by this threat, bringing the possibility of rapid and effective responses to specific threats by acquired immunity cells.

The body makes different types of antibodies to an antigen, which relate to “layers” of the immune system:

IgM are antibodies in the blood.
IgG are antibodies in the lymphatic system and lymph nodes.
IgA are antibodies in the mucous membranes.

The immune system in balance

There are two sides to the immune system that both respond to threats:

The aggressive autoimmune response (the Th1 response).
The restraining suppressive response (the Th2 response).

Good health requires a relative balance between the Th1 and Th2 immune responses, especially in pregnancy:

An immune system that’s too aggressive (Th1 excess or Th2 deficient) can lead to immune cells attacking healthy cells.
An immune system that’s too suppressive (Th2 excess, or Th1 deficient) can result in the immune system failing to protect the body against illnesses or not recognising and removing sick cells, including cancers.

Many factors contribute to the health and balance of the immune system, including genetics, diet, lifestyle, the environment and stress. morefertile^® promotes natural ways to raise health and fertility, including informing people about western science.

The Immune System and Fertility

most women have an immune system that’s in relative balance and able to adapt to the needs of pregnancy; however, many of us may have hidden immune problems that make it more difficult to conceive and maintain a pregnancy. Testing is costly, difficult to access, and is not considered a priority by all fertility experts.

Imbalances in the immune system cause fertility problems for many couples and could be involved in many cases of “unexplained infertility”. Pregnancy requires a woman’s immune system to recognise and support the essentially “foreign” cells that form her baby.

Because half the baby’s genetic material comes from the father, they’re not 100% the mother’s cells, and proteins on the cell walls show this. The woman’s immune system needs to recognise these abnormal cells and make changes to the womb and blood supply to encourage the embryo’s growth and prevent its removal.

Most couples with infertility don’t test for immune status as other more obvious and pressing conditions should be considered first. But it becomes more relevant when the usual causes of infertility (blocked tubes, hormonal problems, male factor, etc.) have been excluded.

Immune conditions are more likely to be involved when couples have unexplained infertility, repeated miscarriages or IVF failures. However, older couples should bear in mind miscarriages rates naturally rise with age.

Infertility and Miscarriage

For women who experience infertility or a miscarriage in their late 30s, the cause is usually:

Chromosomal abnormalities (40-50%).
Blood clotting disorders (20-25%).
Other reasons (25-40%).

Chromosomes have randomness to them that’s unlikely to repeat; however, blood clotting and other causes are often immune-related because either:

The mother’s immune system an embryo’s cells as non-self and attacks them in the same way it would a virus or bacterial invader.
Clotting factors disrupt the blood supply to the developing embryo, and they’re often immune-based.

Immune system imbalances are crucial issues for many couples who can’t conceive naturally, experience repeated IVF cycle failure or miscarriage. For these couples, the problem is often:

The woman’s immune system can either attack eggs in the ovary, the embryo in the fallopian tubes, or the implantation site.
When couples have three miscarriages in a row, an imbalanced immune system in one or both parents is the most common cause.
Repeated miscarriage affects less than 1% of couples but 2-5% of all pregnancies.

It’s estimated that:

60% of women failing four or more IVF cycles have an immune-related cause.
30% of couples who can’t conceive naturally after three years of trying have an immune-related reason.

Immune causes of infertility

A review of immune factors and reproduction in 2012 ⁱ concluded, “Substantial evidence suggests that:

antiphospholipid antibodies
lupus anticoagulant
anti-sperm antibodies
anti-thyroid antibodies
anti-endometrial antibodies
anti-ovarian antibodies
anti-C trachomatis antibodies
cytokines
immunological events in endometriosis and premature ovarian failure”

“…contribute to reproductive failure including unexplained infertility and/or non-chromosomal recurrent miscarriage.”

Without appropriate testing, couples with immune-related infertility will be diagnosed with unexplained infertility. The immune system is complex, and our digestion receives most of our immune challenges. Bizarrely, certain types of roundworm in the gut increase fertility, as dealing with the worms reduces the immune response to other non-self cells (like an embryo). The immune system is also crucial for:

The integrity of DNA in eggs and sperm.
The function of the ovaries (in both phases).
The receptiveness of the endometrium for implantation (70% of IVF failures).

What’s increasingly clear is that the immune system plays a constant and vital role in both creating and maintaining life, and experts say:

“Women with implantation failures or recurrent miscarriage are unbalanced. They are too Th1 activated with cells that attack their pregnancy.”

Alan E Beer MD

Balancing the immune system

There are ways to balance the immune system, with changes to diet, lifestyle and with medicinal herbs and supplements. These are a core part of the morefertile^® Fertility Profile packages that give personalised advice and provide cutting-edge testing and quality products. Choose the science-based fertility support package that meets your needs.

ⁱ ‘A panoramic view to relationships between reproductive failure and immunological factors.‘ Kokcu A, Yavuz E, Celik H, Bildircin D. Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2012 Jul 28. PMID:22843034