Does anyone think immune issues are more common than we think?

[Anonymous]

Mom of only child here experiencing 5 years of "unexplained" secondary infertility. Went to Dr. Abassi for testing which showed some abnormalities and diagnosed with "immune issues." She explained something about this occurring after having a firstborn boy though I don't fully understand the explanation, something about being sensitized to the Y chromosome and my uterus no longer allowing proper implantation of an embryo because of it.

However, when I'm out and about I always notice families who have one child, and most of the time it's families with an only child who is a boy. I rarely see families with an only child who is a girl. I always wonder if these families are also experiencing what was diagnosed as "unexplained secondary infertility" and if they had gone for immune testing would have found out that they have "immune issues."

[Anonymous]

Wasn't this same post posted a few months ago?

[Anonymous]

Interesting; I’m in your same boat. One boy, 6 years trying for another child, diagnosed immune issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't this same post posted a few months ago?

And so what if it is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting; I’m in your same boat. One boy, 6 years trying for another child, diagnosed immune issue.

OP here. Are you planning to do the immune treatment protocol? I truly believe I have immune issues and I believe that many couples who cannot get pregnant again after getting pregnant easily with a boy have this. I look around and see many families with an only child, a boy, and I wonder how many of them are one and done, not by choice.

[Anonymous]

NP. My wife worked with Dr. Braverman, and we both think that if all women who were having difficulty getting pregnant went through his or Dr. KK's immune protocol, they would inevitably find something. For many women, simply treating endometriosis, which is often not suspected by their OB or RE, makes a huge difference.

Our first child was a boy, and DW lost three babies before our rainbow was born a year ago using Dr. Braverman's protocol. I think we owe a lot to Dr. Braverman, but also owe a lot to Dr. Davis at Cornell (and their excellent lab). I also think some of it was just luck and persistence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. My wife worked with Dr. Braverman, and we both think that if all women who were having difficulty getting pregnant went through his or Dr. KK's immune protocol, they would inevitably find something. For many women, simply treating endometriosis, which is often not suspected by their OB or RE, makes a huge difference.

Our first child was a boy, and DW lost three babies before our rainbow was born a year ago using Dr. Braverman's protocol. I think we owe a lot to Dr. Braverman, but also owe a lot to Dr. Davis at Cornell (and their excellent lab). I also think some of it was just luck and persistence.

Does Dr. Braverman treat endometriosis? Is the treatment for endometriosis similar to treatment for immune issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. My wife worked with Dr. Braverman, and we both think that if all women who were having difficulty getting pregnant went through his or Dr. KK's immune protocol, they would inevitably find something. For many women, simply treating endometriosis, which is often not suspected by their OB or RE, makes a huge difference.

Our first child was a boy, and DW lost three babies before our rainbow was born a year ago using Dr. Braverman's protocol. I think we owe a lot to Dr. Braverman, but also owe a lot to Dr. Davis at Cornell (and their excellent lab). I also think some of it was just luck and persistence.

Does Dr. Braverman treat endometriosis? Is the treatment for endometriosis similar to treatment for immune issues?

He works with a couple of very skilled surgeons who work alongside him to remove it based on his immune diagnosis. The thing about endo is that you can't really diagnose it without a lap. Many (nearly all) of his patients go through the lap surgery, and many find they do have endo even though it was never suspected by previous doctors.

In addition to a lap, typically his patients take some combination of neupogen, IVIG, intralipids, prednisone, lovenox, and other supplements along with traditional IVF meds. My wife luckily didn't need IVIG, but she did have a lap, followed by an immune protocol using neupogen, intralipids, prednisone, lovenox, baby aspirin, and other supplements. First cycle was a BFN. The second cycle worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. My wife worked with Dr. Braverman, and we both think that if all women who were having difficulty getting pregnant went through his or Dr. KK's immune protocol, they would inevitably find something. For many women, simply treating endometriosis, which is often not suspected by their OB or RE, makes a huge difference.

Our first child was a boy, and DW lost three babies before our rainbow was born a year ago using Dr. Braverman's protocol. I think we owe a lot to Dr. Braverman, but also owe a lot to Dr. Davis at Cornell (and their excellent lab). I also think some of it was just luck and persistence.

Does Dr. Braverman treat endometriosis? Is the treatment for endometriosis similar to treatment for immune issues?

He works with a couple of very skilled surgeons who work alongside him to remove it based on his immune diagnosis. The thing about endo is that you can't really diagnose it without a lap. Many (nearly all) of his patients go through the lap surgery, and many find they do have endo even though it was never suspected by previous doctors.

In addition to a lap, typically his patients take some combination of neupogen, IVIG, intralipids, prednisone, lovenox, and other supplements along with traditional IVF meds. My wife luckily didn't need IVIG, but she did have a lap, followed by an immune protocol using neupogen, intralipids, prednisone, lovenox, baby aspirin, and other supplements. First cycle was a BFN. The second cycle worked.

Did Dr. Davis and Dr. Braverman work together on your wife’s case? Also, do you recall how much working with Dr. Braverman cost you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. My wife worked with Dr. Braverman, and we both think that if all women who were having difficulty getting pregnant went through his or Dr. KK's immune protocol, they would inevitably find something. For many women, simply treating endometriosis, which is often not suspected by their OB or RE, makes a huge difference.

Our first child was a boy, and DW lost three babies before our rainbow was born a year ago using Dr. Braverman's protocol. I think we owe a lot to Dr. Braverman, but also owe a lot to Dr. Davis at Cornell (and their excellent lab). I also think some of it was just luck and persistence.

Does Dr. Braverman treat endometriosis? Is the treatment for endometriosis similar to treatment for immune issues?

He works with a couple of very skilled surgeons who work alongside him to remove it based on his immune diagnosis. The thing about endo is that you can't really diagnose it without a lap. Many (nearly all) of his patients go through the lap surgery, and many find they do have endo even though it was never suspected by previous doctors.

In addition to a lap, typically his patients take some combination of neupogen, IVIG, intralipids, prednisone, lovenox, and other supplements along with traditional IVF meds. My wife luckily didn't need IVIG, but she did have a lap, followed by an immune protocol using neupogen, intralipids, prednisone, lovenox, baby aspirin, and other supplements. First cycle was a BFN. The second cycle worked.

Did Dr. Davis and Dr. Braverman work together on your wife’s case? Also, do you recall how much working with Dr. Braverman cost you?

They did work together, but Dr. Braverman had to prescribe all of the immune meds. This was Dr. Davis's requirement. I don't know if Dr. Braverman still does this. While we have excellent infertility coverage and all at Cornell was covered, we came OOP for Dr. Braverman and spent around 10-12k. If I remember correctly, it was 3k new patient fee, 3.5k for the lap, 3k for IVF management, around 3k for pregnancy management.

Dr. B also worked very closely with Dr. Hamersley, who is an excellent MFM, during my wife's first trimester.

[Anonymous]

Is lovenox used to treat immune disorders? What type?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is lovenox used to treat immune disorders? What type?

Yes, if you have tested positive for any number of APS including cardiolipin antibodies plus things like ANA (anti-nuclear antibodies) which can be a precursor to Lupus. Probably a lot more, but testing positive for other antibodies like thyroid or ovarian can also probably be treated with steroids. These can also be tricky because they can come and go, so someone who was able to get pregnant before might not be able to and it could still be immune related.

The APS test for RFU and Reprosource test something like 16 different antibodies. I tested positive for several of them only one of which I had even heard of. I was on various amounts of blood thinners for all 3 of my successful pregnancies partially due to APS.