Hi Tam
Yes, I know about immunology issues.
In May this year I went to a Reproductive Immunologist, Gavin Sacks (IVF Australia, City). He did a humungous amount of blood tests - 14 vials in one trip :eek: . They came up clear. I have the list of things tested and will post that separately.
He then performed a uterine biopsy which showed I had a higher than normal amount of Natural Killer cells in my uterus.
In very very simple terms (trust me, this is a very complicated area), NK cells are white blood cells that kill off foreign bodies eg. cancer, viruses etc. They occur naturally in the uterus to prevent an embryo taking over the whole body :eek: . They're at their most prolific between CD19 - CD25. When they're too efficient, the result is that they see
everything as being an invader - including embryos.
There are various protocols and treatments you can try but his protocol for me will be steroids prior to ET and Clexane and Baby Asprin post ET.
It's worth remembering two things here....
A lot of RE's will tell you they've done BTs to test for some of these issues but it really is an extremely specialised field and doubtful that your RE will have access to the method of testing.
The other thing is that this is still in it's research stage. As your RE may, no doubt, tell you as most IVF specialists are not "on the bus" with this treatment.
However, I belong to another board full of 'mature' women like me also with 'unexplained' infertility or repeated mc who now have their bubs or are
pg after trying this treatment.
Unfortunately, I only know of two doctors on the whole east coast who do this, both in NSW. Not sure about WA but know that there is nobody in QLD or Vic.
I'm off to eat now but will come back in later and post the things that the BT needs to cover.
In the meantime, I'm not sure if I can post a link to a brilliant (but head-spinning) site but if you google Dr Beer+immunology you'll find the site for the pioneer of all this who passed away a few months ago. Or google Sacks+repeated+miscarriage, you should come up with something.