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Potentiating Sperm by Immunosupression

S

seep

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 28, 2008
Messages
1,347
I was kicked in the balls REALLY hard at 13 and I am pretty sure my blood-testis barrier was compromised, causing sperm to enter my bloodstream and provoking an autoimmune response.

Here's wondering if there exist super-specific antibody or antigen supressors to combat this autoimmune response and make me temporarily fertile.

I realize that this is by far the weirdest question I've ever asked here but I'm 100% serious.
 
permastoned said:
Have you asked a doctor for their opinion?
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A GP scripted a SERM for my wife. He also blamed my intermittent heroin and crack addiction. I told him that it's not just my wife, but multiple subjects that I've failed to impregnate--many during long periods of sobriety. Prolactin came up in the conversation, I think. Plans were in the works for analysis and treatment at a fertility clinic, but the costs were prohibitive. I never even thought of the possibility of the problem being autoimmune until I read the black pepper post this morning (don't ask). Frankly, I don't think my GP will have a clue about this.

Will a light microscope at 1000X magnification resolve an antibody on the head of a sperm cell?
 
dude you would need an electron microscope to see an antibody.

You need to look at IVF, if you have the money.
 
This sounds kind of like horseshit. Do you ejaculate?
 
Have you considered a traditional immunosupressant like Tacrolimus. This is really a question for an immunologist or fertility pysician though.

That sounds like it really hurt :o
 
It's horseshit if the immune system didn't treat sperm in the blood as an infection. This is speculation. Nothing's broken down there; I'm just concerned about the motility and signaling ability of the little guys. I'll research various immunosupressants but I was primarily wondering if a drug has been developed or even dreamt up for this specific thing. Eventually I'll have to shell out some serious dough, unless this is actually the problem and I come across something that promotes the super-sperm. I have to go make a faraday cage so I apologize if none of this makes sense.
 
I wish I could be of more help but I know that many insurance carriers cover fertility treatments 100%. My insurance is about $300 per month and it covers everything and I knew many people that used their insurance benefits to get pregnant and didn't pay more than the copays.
 
Taking immunosuppressants without being scripted them is a very, very, bad. Theory or not, I would HIGHLY advise you figure something else out. These drugs have many negative impacts on your body, as well as countless interactions with even the most harmless of substances: eg. grapefruit juice in combination with tacrolimus (brand name Prograf) can kill you. Tacrolimus is also nephrotoxic (toxic to the kidneys) and can cause renal failure after enough use or for those with preexisting kidney conditions.

Heres a quote from wiki on tacrolimus:

Side effects can be severe and include blurred vision, liver and kidney problems (it is nephrotoxic), seizures, tremors, hypertension, hypomagnesemia, diabetes mellitus, hyperkalemia, itching, insomnia, confusion, loss of appetite, hyperglycemia, weakness, depression, cramps, and neuropathy, as well as potentially increasing the severity of existing fungal or infectious conditions such as herpes zoster or polyoma viral infections.
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Heres some info on Mycophenolic acid (brand name cellcept), courtesy of wikipedia again (although I could find some papers on both subjects if anyone wants):

Common adverse drug reactions (≥1% of patients) associated with mycophenolate therapy include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, infections, leukopenia, and/or anemia. Mycophenolate sodium is also commonly associated with fatigue, headache, and/or cough. Intravenous (IV) administration of mycophenolate mofetil is also commonly associated with thrombophlebitis and thrombosis. Infrequent adverse effects (0.1–1% of patients) include esophagitis, gastritis, gastrointestinal tract hemorrhage, and/or invasive cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.[1] Several cases of pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) have also been reported.[10]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an alert that patients on mycophenolate mofetil and mycophenolic acid are at increased the risk of opportunistic infections, such as activation of latent viral infections, including BK-virus associated nephropathy. In addition the FDA is investigating 16 patients that developed a rare neurological disease while taking the drug. The neurological condition known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy attacks the brain and central nervous system and is usually fatal.
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If your doctor actually tells you to get some prograf or cellcept, then we'll talk. I have literally hundreds of extras of them at my house, and they are not cheap. Thank god we've got great insurance (sorry to those without it).
 
Thanks. I'm aware of the side effects of immunosupressants. I'm looking for something specific to whatever immunoglobulin would attack a sperm cell.

Then again, my whole theory might be shit.

New York, student, lacrosse: are you at Cornell? Ithaca is paradise.
 
Immunosupresants must be toxic by definition. You must weight the risk-reward ratio obviously but tacrolimus has saved the lives of countless transplant patients. Do not do this on your own - see a doctor and get the proper diagnosis...your theory is not neccesarily "shit" but it will need to be hashed out by a specialist. Autoimmune conditions are generally chronic requiring constant medication but if temporary fertility is your objective then you can potentially avoid that.
 
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to the OP:

you suspect that your sperm volume is subphysiological? then forget the "autoimmunehypothesis" and go ahead with the following structured procedure:


0. if you are taking any (recreational) drugs, stop taking them and observe if sperm volume and/or libido changes to the better. It is useless to make comprehensive and expensive diagnostics if the cause for your problem might be explained by some drugs.

1. assessment of clinical symptoms: pain in the testicles? erectile dysfunction? loss of libido? urinating problems? premature or delayed orgasms?

2. clinical examination of testicles (digital/manual examination, light-bulb test, eventually ultra-sound) in order to assess for possible problems with descensus, hernias, varcocele or tumors.

3. assessment of sex hormone status (LH, FSH, prolactine, estradiol, total and free testosterone) as well as PSA and fPSA

4. sperm analysis (total volume, sperm count per volume unit, fraction of viable vs. damaged sperms etc...)

in that order.

without having perormed a proper diagnostics it would be just ridiculous to start with ANY kind of treatment.
 
Dear otto:

Can you recommend a product that'll enhance libido and also give me ultimate, mind-blowing pumps that'll make me a terror in the gym and leave my competition begging for mercy?
 
seep said:
Dear otto:

Can you recommend a product that'll enhance libido and also give me ultimate, mind-blowing pumps that'll make me a terror in the gym and leave my competition begging for mercy?
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I don't think it's wise to take any kinds of products to treat symptoms that are potentially of medical relevance, as long as it is not clear what is the cause.

There are perhaps 1000 reasons and causes for low libido.
It could be a hormonal thing (can assessed only by blood test)
It could be just stress (check that out)
It could be that you are overworked or overtrained (reduce your workload)
It could be an age-related thing (your age?)
It could be a side effect from medical drugs (e.g. certain antidepressants) or recreational drugs (the infamous 'stim dick')
It could indicate cardiovascular problems (e.g. hypertension, atherosclerosis)

and so on and so on.....

Taking 'a product' would perhaps transiently and partially improve your symptoms, but the underlying cause would continue to exist.
 
otto said:
I don't think it's wise to take any kinds of products to treat symptoms that are potentially of medical relevance, as long as it is not clear what is the cause.
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The question in post 17 was a joke. Sorry: I couldn't help it after the Slim Xtreme thread.
 
i can think of no reason why an autoimmune response to your own sperm would not lead to constant inflammation of the testicles which then would probably lead to so much pain, that you'd have your testicles amputated without a second thought :)
 
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