EMILY DAGOSTINO, Staff Writer
The immune systems in women with one of the top three causes of female infertility might be mounting attacks against embryos before they implant.
Those attacks and pre-existing inflammation from endometriosis could set the stage for infertility.
Infertility specialists in Greenville are using a new blood test — the first of its kind — to demonstrate the link between inflammation, endometriosis and women’s inability to conceive.
Part of ongoing research at Greenville Hospital System through the National Institutes of Health, the blood test has the potential to identify endometriosis in women earlier and shed some light on the biological battles under way in their bodies, said Dr. Bruce Lessey, medical director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at GHS.
“We’re trying to detect evidence that their immune systems have become activated, and we have detected that in a number of women,” said Lessey, who leads the research at GHS.
Evidence suggests that in women with endometriosis proteins trigger a flood of immune cells that normally are stemmed by a progesterone signal. Sensing wrongly that the embryo is an invader, “the immune system’s soldiers” might attack and destroy it before it can implant, Lessey said.
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