Celiac And Infertility

[ivfmama31]

I was recently diagnosed with Celiac. Now I'm starting to connect the dots wondering if that was the mystery behind my daughter's IUGR and preterm birth, and my first two second trimester losses, all of which are unexplained.

My husband and I would love to have another baby, and are secretly hoping that going gluten free may be at least a little bit of a help. My husband hasn't been officially diagnosed, but I really think he at least has a sensitivity to gluten(we'll find out shortly). We both had fertility issues, his unexplained, mine PCOS and went through 6 rounds of IVF before finally having a live birth.

Does anyone know how having celiac may effect fertility in males? I'm hoping if going gluten free boosts my chances it may boost his too. Not only that but I'm hoping it makes a subsequent pregnancy go a little smoother, and maybe make it closer to that full term mark.

[Grace'smom]

Hi there,

I'm a parent of a celiac child, and I haven't experienced pregnancy w/celiac myself, but I did want to say that I've read a lot of posts from other women who experienced sometimes multiple miscarriages and infertility when their celiac disease was undiagnosed and untreated. They then went on to have healthy babies after going gluten free. I saw several threads on the topic a few down from yours titled something like, "pregnancy with diagnosis, so different from before diagnosis". I thought you might want to read it as there were several stories like your own. I'll say a prayer for you that you deliver a healthy happy baby. Take care, Emily

[i-geek]

I've heard that celiac can affect both male and female fertility- usually in both cases due to nutrient malabsorption. My husband and I started trying to have children a little over 6 years ago. I had one early miscarriage that coincided with a bad flare-up of otherwise latent (or so I thought) celiac disease 5 years ago. I went gluten-free right after Christmas 2009. Now the husband is starting to suspect that he has problems with gluten based on reactions to gluten foods after a mostly gluten-free diet (his uncle is a confirmed celiac, another uncle has been told to eat a gluten-free diet, and his mother has a whole host of mysterious health issues). I wonder if we'd be able to have children if he also went gluten-free...

[Lisa]

Celiac has many symptoms and can create lots of collateral damage:

Open Original Shared Link

REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM SYMPTOMS IN MALES IN CELIAC DISEASE

Disorders of organ structure and function.

* Hypogonadism

* Impotence

* Infertility

* Sperm Abnormalities