Autoimmune Diseases: How to Optimize Your Fertility

Autoimmune Diseases: How to Optimize Your Fertility

Living with an autoimmune disease is a daily struggle and is hard enough on its own. But when you’ve started on the journey towards conception, your mind is often flooded with doubts about how your autoimmune diagnosis will affect your fertility.

Make no mistake, there are going to be challenges. However, the good news is, many women successfully conceive and have pregnancies leading to healthy births.

To help you better understand how you can enhance your fertility and optimize your chances of conception while living with an autoimmune disorder, let’s first review a few key autoimmunity definitions and concepts before we dive deeper into the relationship between autoimmunity and the various aspects of fertility.

How Do Autoimmune Diseases Affect Your Body?

Normally, your immune system is designed to help keep you safe by removing foreign agents that enter your body. Antibodies specific to these agents are manufactured by your immune system. They then seek out and attach to these foreign bodies, destroying them in the process.

If you suffer from an autoimmune disease, your immune system is in overdrive. The cause of this stems from a variety of factors, including bacterial/viral infections, diet, and exposure to drugs, along with a genetic predisposition. Regardless of its origins, when an abnormal immune response is triggered, the result is the production of antibodies that end up attacking healthy tissues and cells. Some common autoimmune diseases you are probably aware of include:

• Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

• Celiac Disease

• Multiple Sclerosis

• Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

• Rheumatoid Arthritis

Each of these disorders along with a host of other autoimmune diseases are characterized by a malfunctioning immune system that targets a specific organ or organ systems and the tissues and cells within them. With some of these disorders, there will be times when flare-ups or intense symptoms occur. it’s also possible to experience remission, or periods where disease symptoms subside.

What is the Relationship between Autoimmune Disease and Fertility?

If you are one of many women with an autoimmune disease diagnosis, you are at higher risk of experiencing infertility because your body can produce antibodies that:

• attack your embryos directly, resulting in miscarriages

• target tissues in the ovaries, thus harming follicles and eggs (premature ovarian insufficiency)

• cause issues to organs, tissue, and cells that support conception and pregnancy

Women living with autoimmune diseases are also more prone to developing:

• Endometriosis

  • an overgrowth of endometrial like tissue has been speculated to be associated with a immune system impairment

• Sub-optimal hormonal levels (i.e., progesterone)

• Uterine fibroids, polyps, and fibroids

• Menstrual cycle and ovulatory dysfunction

• Pelvic adhesions and inflammatory disease

The presence of these conditions can decrease your chances of conceiving and may cause you to experience negative consequences during your pregnancy and delivery.

Keep in mind, though, male fertility can also be affected. Men with autoimmune disorders produce antibodies that:

• attack sperm and reproductive organs directly

  • this can result from testicular injury, following a biopsy, vasectomy, or infection

Male partners may also encounter reduced sperm production and/or quality as a side-effect of medications they are taking to control symptoms arising from their autoimmune disease.

Of special note is an autoimmune disorder known as APS/APLS (antiphospholipid antibody syndrome). This is a disease where antibodies target multiple systems within the body but affects fertility by primarily causing negative effects with clotting in the arteries and veins.

In females, these clotting issues may possibly inhibit implantation and result in miscarriages, often due to poor placental development and even separation, as well as increase the likelihood of undergoing premature births.

Male partners who suffer from APS may possibly have abnormalities related to their penis and its functioning. Presently, researchers are continuing to study more about the link between APS and male fertility.

How Can You Receive Medical Intervention that Leads to the Best Outcomes?

Now, all this information probably is throwing fuel to the fire and raising your doubts about ever conceiving and getting pregnant. However, by being proactive, you can help assure that the ideal plan of action encompassing a comprehensive set of medical interventions is formulated that best manages your disease and increases your chances of successfully having a baby. There are several ways where you can actively participate alongside the team of medical specialists that you’re working with to elevate your fertility potential:

1. Maximize you and your partner’s chances of conceiving and your ability to carry a fetus to term by following your physician’s recommendations to undergo standard medical treatments and advice, such as:

• Taking medications to control negative symptoms associated with your disease or treat APS (e.g., aspirin and Lovenox)

• Trying to conceive during periods of remission

• Initiate IUI and IVF when natural conception fails

2. With an unexplained diagnosis related to fertility status, if your doctor hasn’t ordered immune testing, take the initiative to enquire about this, especially if you’ve noticed that you and/or your partner been experiencing unusual symptoms which you suspect may be connected to your immune system. Examples of common symptoms include:

• Tender or swollen muscles and joints

• Lack of concentration

• Allergies, especially skin issues (e.g., rashes)

• Digestive problems

• Recurrent illnesses

• Abnormal blood sugar levels(hypoglycemia)

• Severe fatigue

3. Ask your physician if you can be referred to a genetic specialist to obtain answers to all the questions you have about the likelihood of passing the disorder onto your baby and any considerations you need to take into account with regards to how your disorder will affect your offspring.

Determining if issues exist with your immune system can help you take the appropriate medical interventions to increase your chances in every step you take to have a baby. By performing research on your specific autoimmune disorder and keeping yourself informed of the latest developments with your disease, if you haven’t already done so, you may enhance your ability in getting pregnant.

At the very least, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you have made every effort within your power to make a positive impact on your journey towards conception and beyond.

Eighteen plus years ago, I struggled with an unexplained diagnosis and then found out I had a chromosomal condition. After 3 cycles of IVF at two different clinics and almost 5 years of fertility treatments, my hard-fought battle with infertility was won when my only son and child was born.

Today, as my IVF miracle enters adulthood and embarks on his own life journey that may also hold fertility challenges ahead, I find myself coming full circle, returning to the world of IVF and reproductive health through my involvement with IVF Warrior. By merging my professional skills as a technical and content writer with my biochemistry and healthcare background, I hope to help others in the midst of their fertility journey make more sense of the oftentimes bewildering medical terminology and concepts surrounding fertility.

~Erika

Medical Disclaimer:

The information provided in this blog is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your healthcare provider or qualified medical professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this blog.

References:

1. El Hasbani, G., Khamashta, M., & Uthman, I.W. (2019, December). Antiphospholipid syndrome and infertility. Lupus. 29(2), 1-13.

2. John Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Autoimmune Disease: Why is my immune system attacking itself?

3. LA IVF. (2020, March 16). Immune problems in infertility.

4. Marks, J.W. (Ed.). (2021, June 3). Medical definition of APLS. Medicine Net.

5. Medline Plus. (n.d). Autoimmune disorders.

6. Texas Fertility Centre. (n.d.). Autoimmune issues & infertility.