Antibody test for semen - IVF

Hi everyone. This is only my second post on here so I’m still a bit new to everything concerning IVF.

My husband and I have now booked IVF after seemingly issues with secondary infertility, as I am a bit older we’ve decided to go the IVF route which we’ve booked for May.

Hubby’s semen analysis is fine, but when clinic called they mentioned his semen will need an antibody test on the day of egg extraction, they will test it, if issues they may need to do ICSI. This seemed strange to me as from what she mentioned, this is quite an important test so why wasn’t this done with the original semen analysis, as surely is a huge assessment on whether the semen is ok?

Can anyone help me further; is this just routine test?

Thanks!

[Lynnr54]

Hi, sorry I don’t know the answer to this, but I do think it seems strange. ICSI is the process of taking an individual sperm and injecting it into an egg and is usually used when there are issues with the quality of the sperm, beit not enough, too slow or the wrong shape. I had ICSI but don’t think we ever had the antibody test. To me that sounds like it’s something to do with whether the sperm would be rejected by the egg or similar. I.e. something that you can’t see by eye and wouldn’t be resolved by the ICSI process of injecting a sperm into an egg. Like you say, if they felt that was needed then why not test with an earlier sample? Hopefully I’m wrong and one of the other ladies will have had the test and have a better idea but if you don’t get any reassurance then I’d ask your clinic more about it to understand why they are doing the test on the day and how ICSI would help. Good luck!

[Hidden in reply to Lynnr54]

Thank you for your reply. I agree with you I was a bit confused by the ICSI requirement if there are antibodies. I got the impression that if antibodies are present it means they will need to help the sperm more but I thought this is sounded a pretty serious abnormality and should be included in a semen analysis (which was done at another IVF clinic) . They have said if it’s done at time of the semen sample and egg collection there’s no charge, so I don’t think it’s a commercial thing, but a bit confused as I have read a LOT and never come across this !!!

I have an appt on 15th April so will dig more then or call to clarify. Thank you for your reply !!