'Dancing on Ice' star's failed IVF attempt led to shocking answer to her 'unexplained infertility'

"Dancing on Ice" star Alex Murphy Klein and her husband, YouTuber Paul Klein, recently shared their infertility story with This Morning, including the shocking diagnosis they finally received for their "unexplained infertility."

Key Takeaways:

• Alex Murphy Klein and her husband, Paul Klein, were unable to become pregnant before they were diagnosed with "unexplained infertility" and opted to try IVF.

• After one round of IVF failed, they were preparing for another when Murphy Klein decided she didn't want to move forward with it. Instead, the couple sent samples of their blood to a testing company and learned that they each had a genetic marker that made implantation nearly impossible.

• Murphy Klein's body was acting as though it were "allergic" to her husband's DNA and attacking the children they conceived together.

• Thanks to the blood test results, Murphy Klein is now undergoing treatments to tell her body to accept her husband's DNA in hopes of achieving a successful pregnancy.

The Details:

Murphy has shared her infertility story on social media before, but she went into more detail in a recent interview, saying that after not being able to conceive and then going through one failed round of IVF, she and her husband decided not to move forward with another round of IVF. They had taken that route after being told that their infertility was "unexplained" — a 'diagnosis' that didn't sit right with Murphy. If there was nothing wrong with either of them, as doctors said, why were they unable to become pregnant?

"I just had to put the brakes on," she told ITV's This Morning.

‘I’m Allergic To My Husband’ | This Morning

She continued, "We got an at-home medical blood testing kit from a company called Fertilysis. They send you the tests in the mail, and you give them a blood vial and so we went down to the Pharmacy and got our bloods drawn. We sent them overseas to Greece, and we found out that we have a genetic pre-disposition that makes me incompatible with Paul's DNA — which is crazy."

Fertilysis found "immune-related genetic factors affecting embryo implantation, alongside elevated sperm DNA fragmentation." It explained, "By reviewing these findings... we identified immune issues contributed to implantation failure and early pregnancy loss, despite routine fertility tests appearing normal" (emphases added). Sperm DNA fragmentation can prevent fertilization, cause poor embryo development, recurrent miscarriage, and male infertility.

Murphy Klein explained, "I have this thing called KirAA and Paul has a gene called HLAC2 and when these genes come together, they kind of repel. My genes put the brakes on and say 'let's attack this.' So no matter what we had done at that point in time [to become pregnant], it wouldn't have worked."

Murphy Klein believes they made the right call in refusing further rounds of IVF. Had they chosen to do multiple rounds, they would not have had success because of the way her DNA reacts to Klein's — but they never would have understood why.

As a result of the blood test findings, the couple has begun a treatment called LIT therapy, which involves injecting processed samples of Klein's blood into Murphy's body to help her immune system build up a tolerance. "It's like immunotherapy," she explained. She is also undergoing additional treatments to help her body "accept" her husband's DNA. They hope to become pregnant as they progress with the treatments.

Why It matters:

IVF has been called the "Band-Aid" approach to fertility for good reason.

Often, as with this couple, fertility businesses don't search for the direct cause of infertility. Instead, they charge tens of thousands of dollars to undergo IVF, creating more children than the couple intends to have, and then offering further unethical options such as egg or sperm donation or surrogacy when the IVF fails. This was the path Murphy Klein and her husband may have been on if they hadn't sought further information from Fertilysis.

Restorative Reproductive Medicine is an ethical approach to fertility care that uses fertility charting and tracking as well as male fertility screening, specific medical testing, blood tests, and personalized treatment plans to help couples become pregnant naturally or carry a pregnancy to term after repeated miscarriages.

The Bottom Line:

No couple should be subjected to the destructive and costly process of IVF that treats children as commodities. Couples seeking fertility care should always search for the true cause of their infertility so that personalized, ethical treatments can be offered.