Zoroastrians all over the world are worried over the declining population of the community. Every possible aspect should be looked into, such as early marriage with each couple bringing more children into the world.
One major cause for the decline in fertility is a hormone deficiency in married women which is curable through medication such as clomiphene. The following extract from The Penguin Medical Encyclopedia by Dr Peter Wingate states:
"Though most married couples produce children without undue difficulty, some manage only after years of disappointment and some not at all. Medicine cannot always help, but every case is worth investigating.
"In the first place it is the couple that needs attention and not one or other member. Some husbands resent any suggestion that they should be examined, as though it were an insult to their manhood. In fact, infertility has little to do with impotence, of which they think they are accused, and amongst civilized people neither diagnosis need be taken as an insult.
"Even in these enlightened times a few infertile couples need no more than a simple instruction about sex. And apart from mere technique, the timing of coitus is important. A woman is most likely to conceive a fortnight before her period, when ovulation occurs.
"If it is hard to see what the emotional climate can have to do with fertility, the fact remains that the successful treatment of a neurosis may incidentally cure infertility. Sometimes adopting a child seems to have the same effect. All kinds of physical ill health also reduce fertility.
"Examination of the seminal fluid may show that the number or the motility of the sperms is abnormally low. Measures to improve a man’s general health, and perhaps a brief term of abstinence followed by coitus timed to coincide with ovulation may help, and artificial insemination from the husband (AIH) is sometimes advised.
"Various gynecological disorders that impair fertility can be treated surgically. But sometimes the ovaries fail to release an ovum each month because of a deficiency in the pituitary gland. This gland below the brain should secrete a hormone to stimulate the ovaries. If this mechanism fails the patient can be given injections of the hormone or the synthetic substitute clomiphene treatment, sometimes leading to twins, triplets or more.
"In a few cases where both partners are normal there seems to be some chemical antagonism between sperms and uterine secretion. In these cases, as in those where the sperms are defective, the question of artificial insemination from a donor other than the husband (AID) may arise. This is technically simple, but it presents grave ethical and legal problems.
"There remains a large group of couples in whom no treatable cause of infertility can be found. For them, adoption is often a complete remedy.”
ASPI DARUWALA
Karachi, Pakistan