"New Anti-Fertility Factor"

For a little while last week it looked as though scientists might be well on the way to finding a safe, cheap contraceptive to be taken by mouth. The journal Science, grey with age and scholarly respectability, gave its lead position and a 12 1/2-page spread to the preliminary findings of Dr. Benjamin F. Sieve, a Boston physician, on what he calls "a new antifertility factor." On its face, the report looked promising indeed, but scientists who have spent many years looking for an oral contraceptive were far from satisfied.

Claims & Costs. Dr. Sieve's claims: 298 couples, all of whom must have been fertile because they had had at least one child, took his pills daily for periods ranging from three months to 2 1/2 years. During this time, said Dr. Sieve (pronounced seevy), none of the wives became pregnant. But when 220 couples stopped taking the pills because they had decided it was time to have another child, all the wives conceived within three months.

Dr. Sieve calls his pills phosphorylated hesperidin. Plain hesperidin, known for years, is related to so-called vitamin P. These preparations have been tried with indifferent results in a variety of ailments, from kidney disorders and psoriasis to radiation sickness. Hesperidin comes from orange peel and could be made about as cheaply as aspirin in mass production.

Doubts & Questions. To cautious scientists, Dr. Sieve's report was a little too pat, his results too nearly perfect. In the first place, Dr. Sieve conceded that in experiments with mice he had had 60% failures. Next, he relied heavily on the theory that the ability of the male sperm to penetrate an ovum depends largely on the enzyme hyaluronidase, and argued that the hesperidin must counteract this enzyme. Actually, say physiologists, there is no proof that hyaluronidase is responsible for penetration of the ovum. Further, Dr. Sieve speculated that the hesperidin helps a layer of cells around the ovum to clump together and keep the sperm out; that too, say physiologists, rests on an unproved theory.

As for the human guinea pigs, other investigators simply did not believe that any man could be so lucky as to find 596 patients (out of 600), every one of whom would religiously take pills every day (usually three times a day), month after month. And Dr. Sieve had only the patients' word that they were using no other contraceptive.

Boston-raised and once connected with Beth Israel and Boston City hospitals, Dr. Sieve now practices in his own clinic, alone except for six technicians. He has had a remarkable variety of medical interests: the ductless glands, nutrition, hemorrhage, fertility and now antifertility. , Eleven years ago Dr. Sieve was among those who proclaimed that para-aminobenzoic acid would restore grey hair to its original color. By now, the medical profession has discarded this idea.

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