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

Table 3 The titer of antibody levels 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
	RU	RU	RU	P-value	P-value
GnRH IgM (≥85)	113 (102–136)	113 (89-)	159 (116–196)	0.190	0.607
GnRH-R IgM (≥75)	103 (88–256)	179 (102–350)	116 (86–134)	0.785	0.343
LH IgM (≥0.82)	0.9 (0.9-1.6)	1.1 (0.8-)	0.9 (0.8-2.2)	1.000	0.857
LH IgG (≥2.0)	3.0 (2.3-4.6)	4.3 (2.4-9.2)	2.7 (2.1-7.6)	0.839	0.511
LH-R IgM (≥166)	240 (194–504)	214 (185–649)	232 (158–310)	0.699	0.732
LH-R IgG (≥338)	452 (379–582)	406 (366–609)	559 (447–742)	0.330	0.863

BD = Blood donor, IVF = in vitro fertilization. Antibody levels are expressed as relative units (RU). The cut-off of RU >97.5^th percentile in a cohort of 169 healthy female blood donors were considered as presence of antibodies, and level was calculated only in positive samples. No IgG antibodies against GnRH or its receptor were found in patients. Values are given as median, interquartile range. Wilcoxon’s signed rank test or Mann-Whitney U-test were used. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

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