Couple’s fertility struggle leads to little-known sperm discovery

Parenting

By Claudia Poposki, News.com.au

A Sydney woman has revealed how a little-known issue with her husband’s sperm affected their ability to have a baby – after the couple thought they were finally in the clear.

Amber Price and her husband John had been elated to start trying for a family after the influencer battled with Crohn’s and an ulcerative colitis diagnosis, both of which affected her fertility.

The 27-year-old had first begun developing painful symptoms at a young age, but after trying an array of different treatments, she turned a corner healthwise, and the couple were finally able to pursue their dream of becoming parents.

However, the pair – who met on Tinder in 2015 and married six years later – faced another blow when they struggled to conceive.

When standard testing came back blank, the pair paid $500 (about $316 USD) for a specialist test, which revealed there was an antibody in John’s sperm that was hindering their efforts.

“With all my health problems that I’ve had over the years, after about two months of trying, I sent both my husband and I to the doctor’s,” she told news.com.au.

The doctor emphasized couples need to be “trying” for a year before testing can be done, but due to her lengthy health struggles, agreed testing could be done.

When everything came back clear, they continued their attempts, but a year on and the newlyweds still had no luck.

Amber even went to see a gynaecologist who put her on hormone medication but their efforts still proved fruitless.

“I couldn’t help but think ‘oh, my God, what’s wrong with us?’,” she said.

“My husband was also having a downward spiral.”

At their wits end, the couple went to see Francesca Naish at The Jocelyn Centre, a naturopath clinic, in Sydney.

Francesca looked over the couple’s test results, and suggested the couple take a $500 ($316 USD) sperm analysis test called immunobead test (IBT), which checks for sperm antibodies.

The test looks for immunological infertility, which describes when the immune system reacts to it’s own sperm as if it were invasive cells. It’s typically caused as a result of cancer, a vasectomy or infection, according to US health organisation the Cleveland Clinic.

Though it can be caused by “trauma” to the area.

“My husband’s results come back saying that he has an antibody connected to his sperm,” Amber said.

“It apparently is super common in a lot of men, but many guys don’t actually know about it.”

Studies have shown links between the condition and “testicular damage”, which in John’s case, the couple speculated could have been caused by playing contact sports, “injuring” the sperm.

The diagnosis was a relief, but Amber and John were devastated it had taken two years to get to this point.

Amber, who at the height of her Crohn’s issues “went to the toilet about 95 times”, decided to undergo an IVF treatment called ICSI.

Sadly, their pregnancy journey wasn’t without its struggles, taking the pair 730 days – including two miscarriages – to conceive before welcoming their rainbow baby Freya in August 2023.

Despite being over the moon at her birth, Amber’s long road to health combined with medical issues within her wider family, led the pair to make an unconventional decision to freeze Freya’s stem cells.

Some medical experts believe cord blood, the stem-cell-rich blood that flows through the umbilical cord and the placenta when a baby is in the womb, should be “banked” as a biological insurance policy.

Stem cell procedures such as Embryonic Stem Cell can be highly controversial, largely due to the high costs and the ethics behind the testing, studies state.

But it has shown “strong promise” in early studies as a treatment for a range of health issues, such as bone marrow transplants and neonatal brain injuries, The Australian reported recently.

However, there’s currently “insufficient evidence to prove this”, according to the Royal Women’s Hospital.

The family opted for umbilical cord blood stem cells, which has been recommended of performed to treat a variety of conditions, according to the American Medical Association.

But, concerns such as patient safety and private storage have been expressed.

Ultimately, Amber and John decided it was worthwhile for their daughter, using Cell Care for the procedure.

The new family are now sharing their story to raise awareness about the diffuclties many face getting pregnant.

“I had extreme morning sickness up until 41 weeks, but I’d do that just to have Freya in our lives,” Amber said.