ABSTRACT
Reproductive failure and anti-sperm antibody (ASA) production among prostitutes were investigated. A questionnaire including the subject's age, years of prostitution, date of most recent birth, number of children and contraceptive method used at the beginning of prostitution were asked of 109 prostitutes, but only 53 agreed to complete the questionnaire. ASA was detected by ELISA in the prostitutes (n = 109) and in the control group (n = 40) sera. The tests revealed a high ASA rate (43.1%) among the prostitutes. The difference in the incidence of ASA between controls (5%) and the prostitutes (43.1%) was highly significant (p less than 0.01). It was found that ASA positivity incidence in 27 prostitutes who had never use any contraception method and who became infertile within 9.3 years (average) was 61.3%. These results may be explained by repeatedly inoculations with multiple sperm antigens and/or microorganisms.
PIP: Health workers at the National Health Centre Laboratories in Izmir, Turkey took blood samples from 109 prostitutes to test for antisperm antibodies (ASA) and for Treponema pallidum (the causative agent for syphilis). Researchers analyzed the results to determine the role of ASA incidence in reproductive failure. 40 fertile women who were not prostitutes comprised the control group. Significantly more prostitutes (43.1%) tested positive for ASA than did the controls (5%) (p.01). 53 prostitutes tested positive for T. pallidum. T. pallidum positive women were slightly more likely to also be ASA positive women were slightly more likely to also be ASA positive than T. pallidum negative women (49.1% vs. 37.5%) (p.05). 27 (51%) prostitutes did not use any contraception. ASA incidence for these women stood at 61.31% compared to only 28.3% for the control group (p.01). 23 of these women had had children, but the last birth occurred on average 9.3 years prior to the study. It was significant that these 23 women had not used any contraception since the last birth. Mean length of prostitution stood at 9.6 years. Of the prostitutes who did use contraception, most (24.5% of all prostitutes) used oral contraceptives. The researchers could not determine if the prostitutes who used contraception would have also become infertile if they did not use contraception. In conclusion, repeated exposure to multiple sperm antigens and/or microorganisms may explain the high incidence of ASA and reproductive failure among prostitutes.
