Jayne and Dr. Lawrence Reed of Houston are parents to two adopted children. They have tried to have a child of their own for 10 years. They went through countless tests and treatments. Dr. Reed’s sperm was normal. Mrs. Reed ovulated, but irregularly. Then one doctor discovered that she had too much testosterone. (All women produce this male sex hormone.)
The physician prescribed Prednisone, a hormone that depressed the adrenal output. Mrs. Reed conceived three times, but each pregnancy failed. Something else was wrong that escaped science.
“We want more children, and my time is running out,” says Mrs. Reed, who is 37. “We have a huge house that we built so we could have a large family.” They’re still trying.
In 20 percent of infertility cases, the problem lies with both the husband and the wife. They may be having sex too infrequently. Or, if the husband’s sperm count is just below the normal range and the wife ovulates intermittently, the couple could be infertile.
Artificial Insemination
Doctors occasionally collect the husband’s lazy sperm and place it at the mouth of the wife’s womb or even inside the womb itself to raise the chances of fertilization. Here, too, doctors borrow from IVF technology. Before insemination, the sperm is placed in the same fluid used for in vitro fertilization. This seems to increase chances of a “take.”
When the husband has no sperm at all or a sperm count so low that fertilization is impossible, many couples rely on artificial insemination with sperm from an unrelated donor whose identity is unknown to them. In recent years, thousands of couples have “adopted” sperm from a sperm bank.
The late Dr. Sophie Kleegman, the New York gynecologist who 40 years ago pioneered sexual and fertility studies, said, “Infertility patients are not sick, but they are heartsick, and the help they seek is, to them, as urgent as any in medical practice.” At last, doctors have heeded those words.
*124/266/5*