Autoantibodies and gastrointestinal symptoms in infertile women in relation to in vitro fertilization

Table 2 The prevalence of antibodies against gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and their receptors

	Patients before IVF	Patients after IVF	Blood donors	BD vs. before IVF	Before vs. after IVF
	N = 96	N = 96	N = 169	P-value	P-value
GnRH IgM, n (%)	5 (5.2)	3 (3.1)	4 (2.4)	0.292	0.721
GnRH-R IgM, n (%)	13 (13.5)	10 (10.4)	4 (2.4)	0.001	0.657
LH IgM, n (%)	5 (5.3)	2 (2.1)	5 (3.0)	0.504	0.444
LH IgG, n (%)	14 (14.6)	5 (5.3)	5 (3.0)	0.001	0.051
LH-R IgM, n (%)	6 (6.3)	6 (6.3)	6 (3.6)	0.362	1.000
LH-R IgG, n (%)	9 (9.4)	9 (9.4)	4 (2.4)	0.016	1.000

BD = Blood donors, IVF = in vitro fertilization, n (%) = number of patients. Antibody levels above the cut-off of relative units >97.5^th percentile in a cohort of 169 healthy female blood donors were considered as presence of antibodies. No IgG antibodies against GnRH or its receptor were found in patients. Fisher’s exact test (2-sided). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

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