HEALTHY HUMOR

Psychotherapy Restores Female Fertility; Therapist Not Arrested

While we have frequently read that an errant male therapist has attempted to remedy female infertility with amorous advances, we are happy to report that in the most recent case, the approach was commendably scientific.

A professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University in Atlanta found the cause of much female infertility in otherwise healthy young women is stress.

Welcome to the modern world. An analysis of female spinal fluid showed heightened levels of cortisol, which is a hormone precipitated by stress and linked to depression, osteoporosis and, in this case, what is termed “anovulation.”

Half of the women were given cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), designed to help them keep their stress-inducing problems in perspective. The other half were not so fortunate.

Berga found that "A staggering 80 percent of the women who received CBT started to ovulate again, as opposed to only 25 percent of those randomized to observation."

Among the CBT recipients, six regained complete fertility, and, expectedly enough, some of them became pregnant.

Therapists who have attempted prosecutable remedies to female infertility were skeptical of the study but many stated that they might give CBT a try, because it offered the advantage of keeping them out of jail. .

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