Cures for Childlessness

Two books were on sale last week which together furnished a convenient checklist of the causes of human infertility. Fertility in Men (Lippincott; $3.50) was wrapped in a blue dust jacket; Fertility in Women (Lippincott; $4.50), in pink. Men is by Lieut. Commander Robert Sherman Hotchkiss of Manhattan; Women is by Dr. Samuel Lewis Siegler of Brooklyn Women's Hospital. With their help, a good doctor should be able to help about half of the childless couples who consult him to get into the market for blue or pink layettes.

The books' simultaneous publication emphasized a fact that doctors are only gradually persuading childless couples to believe: either partner may be the cause of childlessness. Says Dr. Siegler: "There are still individuals who believe that sterility can be blamed only on the female. This belief is obviously based upon ignorance. Yet it is appalling to note the number of women subjected to various examinations and even to surgery without attempting to seek the causative factor in the male."

Infertility is far commoner than is generally supposed. From 1910 to 1930, whether by accident or design, 17% of native white U.S. marriages were childless, 15% of pregnancies resulted in abortions and miscarriages, 5% to 8% of marriages resulted in only one child. Hotchkiss reports that, among a group of married women 20 to 29 years old who used no contraceptives, only one intercourse in 202 resulted in pregnancy. Infertility is by no means an exclusive matter of stopped-up tubes, venereal disease, or poor sexual development. Some other causes: diet low in vitamins or protein, poor absorption of food, too much alcohol, too little sleep, "nervousness," infections, recent fever, thyroid and pituitary disorders, wrong kinds of vaginal douches.

The story of the infertile girl who conceived after two months of eating at the Automat is probably apocryphal (the doctor is said to have recommended it because Automat vegetables are not overcooked). But Dr. Siegler cites "instances of conception with no therapy directed actually at the reproductive system but following such practices as physical and mental relaxation, separate vacations for husband and wife . . . removal of foci of infection in sinuses, tonsils, and digestive system, correction of anemia. . . ."

Some other fertility facts:

P: Sometimes people who are fruitful in other matings are not fruitful as partners (e.g., Napoleon and Josephine). Doctors do not understand this strange incompatibility, but think it may explain those baffling couples who have nothing wrong with them yet remain childless.

P:When they decide to have a child, couples who use contraceptives must usually wait three months or more for conception to occur. The wait increases by about two months for every year that contraceptives have been used.

P:All that some "sterile" couples need is sex instruction. This is true of many highly educated people who seek medical advice.

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