The Prevalence of Serum and Seminal Fluid Antisperm Antibody in Couples with Unexplained Subfertility in Kirkuk City

Unexplained infertility occurs in many couples of reproductive ages; immune mechanisms have been postulated in this disorder for the last few decades. Antisperm Antibody (ASA) present in serum and seminal plasma has been implicated. Many researches have been devoted to studying autoantibody in males. However, too little attention has been paid in females. For this aim, 127 couples with unexplained infertility are involved in this case-control study. Enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) test is used to detect ASA in serum specimens of both male and female. The same technology is also applied for detecting ASAs in male seminal fluid qualitatively. The results demonstrate that 22.8% of infertile women with unexplained subfertility have IgG-ASA in their serum an. Furthermore, seminal fluid analysis is carried to their partner. Consequently, the results show that out of 127 male patients with unexplained infertility 56 male (44%) and 18 (14.1%) have positive ASA in the seminal fluid and their serum, respectively. Additionally, four couples have positive ASA in the blood of both partners, and two had positive ASA in the blood of the female partner and in the blood and semen of the male partner. Statistically, the outcomes demonstrate that the presence of ASA in the female is not associated with its positivity in the male partner seminal fluid or blood (P>0.05). Accordingly, the study concludes that other causes rather than autoimmune mechanism are more likely implicated in unexplained subfertility.