Babe, You Ain't Infertile

No you've probably just got some (normally obscure) protein or hormone in your body that tiny bit askew throwing your baby-making factory off course.

So many couples give up so soon. Here's this rather scary story from India - scary to all of us thirtysomethings in the West with our kidulthood lifestyles lasting well into our 40s. Out there, folks, if you hit 35 without dropping a sprog, that's the end of it.

Are Modern Lifestyles Causing Infertility?

“This is my last attempt. I am not trying anymore. After this I will give up all treatments,” 35-year old Aranya breaks down in front of her close friend and confidant. Her frustration is due to the fact that she has not been able to bear a child in the last nine years of their marriage.

Note that the people quoted, and the story itself, originate from Southern India where fertility has always been a very high priority, culturally and sociologically. The specialist Doctor (who must be minting it) lists the leading causes of this epidemic (1 in 2 of 1920 couples in a niche population) of infertility. In her opinion: late marriage (i.e. after 30s... that's late?), stress, obesity, bad diet and low libido. Duh - the last one is like bloody obvious. I mean, what's the first step in baby-making? Then, like most ills in India nowadays, she blames high-earning I.T. jobs and career pressures that keep couples apart. Obviouser and obviouser, I say. But, anyhoo, other than not doing the obvious and having sex as often as you can get alone together, the main culprit is hormonal imbalance. That is, once you've stopped abusing controlled substances, smoking and slathering yourselves in sperm-killing oils and lotions.

I'd advise any woman faced with a dour prospect of the word "infertile" being stamped on her medical record after little more than a year to get her serum Prolactin levels checked out.
See next story.