Antisperm antibodies

[Buttons86]

We have had all our tests done on NHS and waiting on referral. My tests have come back with low FSH and semen analysis has come back with high level of antisperm antibodies. Our GP wasn’t really able to provide much information on this other than that we would be eligible for assistance on NHS. If anyone has any experience on this and would be willing to share would really appreciate it.

Hi @Buttons86

Just searching some posts for antisperm antibodies. Has your situation moved on at all?

Do you know the % of antisperm antibodies? My husband had mumps as a child which we think is prob where it came from. I was told if above 50% and having IVF they will recommend ICSI. We had tests in May and his level was 42%. On day of egg collection (I was due normal IVF) the level was 98%!! We have no clue why it has jumped as no trauma to the testes or infection etc. He will be having another sample soon and it will be ICSI again for our next round xa

Hi @RuthieIVF

My husband's was 80%. We have no idea what has caused it as he hasn’t had mumps or any infection/trauma in that area.

We got referred on the nhs for an initial consultation and further tests for us both as we had been trying for over a year and I’m 36. However the results we had didn’t qualify for nhs funding until we’ve been trying for 2 years. The consultant said there was limited research on the antibodies and they can improve on their own but didn’t have very much information on them to share with us. The nhs tests don’t normally test for it but for some reason they did on his sample.They also came to the conclusion I have luteal
phase defect and low progesterone.

We decided to pay for a couple of cycles of cyclogest for me for the luteal phase defect and my husband has started taking vitamins and made some diet changes but haven’t done another SA yet. Think we are going to try until January and then get another SA done and assess whether to go private for IVF if no joy by then or wait until we go on the list for nhs funding in June. The consultant did mention ICSI if we did IVF as improving chances when high antibodies x

@Buttons86 thank you for your reply.

I am 38, and I conceived my daughter at 34 with help of Letrozole - similarly I too have a luteal phase defect- period starts 10 days after ovulation. The logic was I never got a strong follicle and my late ovulation (c. Day 18-21) was representative of this too. My tiredness etc is also likely due to progesterone issues (says my acupuncturist)
Letrozole changed my cycle and I ovulated day 15/16 and got the 14 days after ovulation - pregnant second month.

my husband had elevated anti sperm antibodies then but it works and we got pregnant.

have you tried Letrozole??

I have done another six months of it when trying this time round, and it didn’t work this time – didn’t even fix my cycle, let alone get pregnant! My consultant said I could do a few more months at a double dose, but we need to hope his levels come down, as it will be still quite unlikely to get pregnant while that is so high

the lack of fixes for ASA is making me nervous 😞

husband has been taking proxeed as seen good info on it and has actual clinical results so 🤞🏻

best of luck to you xx

I know this is an old thread but wanted to ask how you’re getting on @Buttons86? we’ve been told my husband likely has 100% ASA and it’s floored me a bit, feels like yet another hurdle.

Hello @thislittlebird I know you were asking someone else, but hoping may give hope - we had our 2nd round of IVF in Jan and this time my husbands antisperm antibodies was 30%. Round 1 last Aug it was 98% !! So it really can vary. Our levels were

May 22 (pre IVF tests) - 42%
Aug 22 (IVF round 1) - 98%
Jan 23 (IVF round 2) - 30%

I don't hugely know why but it can vary. He has been drinking proxeed drinks since July last year so maybe that made a difference (store.testhim.com/products/copy-of-proxeed-men) plus cutting caffeine and no booze etc

Best of luck xx

Sorry @thislittlebird, I had a little break.

So in positive news I did actually get pregnant at end of November. We were using proseed at the time and other half had made some changes to lifestyle. Sadly I had a missed miscarriage in January at 11 weeks.

Although a sad ending hopefully some positivity that can get pregnant with a higher ASA. We haven’t had it checked again since and going to have few more cycles of trying now my cycles are back. Wishing you all the best xx

Hi everyone, sorry to jump on an old thread but can I ask did anyone ever get any tests done and see that proxeed did actually reduce the ASA? Or get pregnant from proxeed with high ASA? If so was it proxeed plus or proxeed man you used please?

@Capybara95 we never conceived naturally, but my husband was on Impryl for a long time leading up to our final ICSI cycle (we had three cycles and seven transfers in total) and on that final cycle we used IMSI at the Lister as well as sperm washing and only collecting the sample at the last minute. Long story short, our 7th transfer was successful with very high ASA.

@Buttons86 sorry to hear your news but glad you can take the positives from it. For us, both 40 give or take a year, PGT-A seemed to help on the last cycle and our only euploid embryo is 10 weeks old now. I do wish we'd found out about the ASA much earlier, but it worked out ok.

@Capybara95 we used proxeed men and it did bring ASA level down (between first failed round and second round), and our second round of IVF worked. He’s 44, I was 39. Best of luck xxx

@thislittlebird so sorry to hear you had such a long journey but so happy to hear it worked out for you in the end!!

we have 5 frozen embryos and have had a fresh transfer that failed. We’re having our first FET in August but I’m just really nervous about it already

@RuthieIVF thanks for sharing your experience! So glad it worked out for you! I’ve put our situation in my post above just really hope it works this time!! I’m 28 and my husband is 33

Hi @thithislittlebird sorry to jump on your post. We also have high asa and are considering lister. May I ask which consultant you were/are under? We'd like one who's experienced in high asa. Thxx

@Fariapea no problem, I saw James Nicopollous and it was one of the embryologists there that actually picked up on the high ASA and suggested the things I mentioned above. Definitely ask what protocol they’d put in place to allow for the ASA if you meet with them. I do think paying extra for IMSI might have helped too.

Thanks a lot. We're actually looking to book with dr parikh as her profile mentions she has experience in male factor and immunology. This antibody thing is so strange. All my husbands other parameters are ok apart from morphology which is a little low. I read that asa causes a drop in motility but his is quite good. He was unwell when he gave the test so we're hoping that could be it. I am not massively keen on icsi/imsi unless we've no choice. Would rather ivf as I've read its less risky for the baby so we might push to try that first at least. We've been trying a year but age is not on our side.

@Fariapea yeah, there’s not an awful lot they can do for ASA tbh, so just make sure they do the few things they can. My husband’s motility and vitality was poor and we never knew why but ASA turned out to be the reason. You might get lucky and conceive naturally if it’s only been a year, but if age is an issue (it was for us) and you go the assisted conception route then they might suggest PGT-A too, it definitely helped us and I was 39 on my last cycle.

IMSI is just a really big microscope the Lister has for aiding sperm selection so it’s not a risk, they just look for the best ones, and I wouldn’t call ICSI a risk, they might recommend it with ASA because if the sperm are harmed by the antibodies they’re less likely to get to the egg in a dish. Talk to them about the options. We did ICSI and if it wasn’t for that I doubt we’d ever have conceived since most of my husband’s sperm couldn’t swim well.

Thanks so much for your advice @thislittlebird really appreciate it. Yeh so age is an issue too for us. The weird thing is my husbands motility is good. The only thing slightly reduced is morphology but asa is 100%. How is that even possible as what I am reading is it impacts sperm motility. We're booking our initial consultation soon. Just unsure as to whether to go crgh lister or argc atm x