SEXUALITY, ILLNESS, AND HEALTH: FERTILITY AND SEXUALITY
Eight years ago, couples started corning to me for help with fertility problems. They were referred by doctors who were working on the mechanical and metabolic aspects of fertility, working with drugs and timing and, in some cases, surgery. These doctors knew that emotions played a major role in fertility, but they did not know, and none of us know, how. They did know that the couples were becoming stressed by the constant vigilance, the repeated disappointments, the blaming and self-blame, the anger, the jealousy of those who seemed to get pregnant so easily. “Why is it,” asked one of the wives,’ that the only people who seem to get a child so easily are those who don’t seem to want them or need them as much as we do?”
I cannot discuss the complexities of the fertility issues here. I can tell you, however, that I have now treated thirty-six couples in the last eight years. Three of these couples were in my couples sample. Thirty couples have succeeded in having a baby—sometimes more than one! I don’t know, and I am sure that their doctors don’t really know, why they succeeded. Was it the drugs, the hope, the timing, chance? I have found that mutual emotional support and reduction of stress can help relationships. I don’t really know if it helps cause pregnancy, but I would guess that it does some good, perhaps again by enhancing the immune system, which has much to do with pregnancy.
*290\97\8*
