Sterility In Women

Article #1: Sterility In Women by Herbert M. Shelton

The pattern of the case was simple and familiar: A young Italian woman had been married for five years to a virile young man, also Italian. Both wanted children and had avoided all efforts at birth control in the hope that pregnancy would take place. It did not.

She consulted several physicians who assured her that her sterility was permanent. Her father-in-law told her of the fast and of the possibility that it might help her. She consulted a Hygienist.

“Will a fast enable me to become pregnant?” she asked. It was explained to her that there are different reasons for sterility and that some of them yield to the fast, others do not. After interrogation, she was told that the probability was that a fast would enable her to become pregnant.

She underwent the fast. A few weeks after the fast was broken, she conceived and later bore a bright, healthy boy. This is one case out of many of similar nature. Fasting has enabled many women to conceive after years of sterility. Many of these women give a history of menstrual irregularities, profuse flow, severe cramps that send them to bed each month, large clots, soreness of the breasts and similar symptoms that indicate endocrine (ductless gland) imbalance, inflammation of the ovaries or womb and nervous difficulties.

Others give a history of metritis (inflammation of the lining of the womb) with a more or less chronic vaginal discharge. In these latter cases, the discharge is often highly acid, sufficiently acid to destroy the sperm.

These are the types of cases that are most readily corrected and that are restored to health by a period of physical, mental and physiological rest. Few cases of female sterility are absolute; most of them are the outgrowth of conditions of disease and are remediable. Great numbers of women have found the ability to conceive restored by a restoration to good health, and a large part of these women have found the fast of inestimable value in the clearing up of conditions that prevented conception.

In passing, it may be well to mention that in those many cases of women who readily conceive, but who abort, being unable to carry their baby to full term, a restoration of good health will enable them to give birth to normal babies. A clearing up of the toxic state followed by greatly improved nutrition enables them to avoid abortions.

The most spectacular case of this kind that has come under the author’s observation was that of a woman who had previously had twenty-eight spontaneous abortions. After a fast of ten days and a period on a greatly improved diet, she became pregnant and at full term gave birth to a healthy boy. Delivery was normal.

The length of fast required in cases of female sterility varies with the condition of the woman. I recall the case of a comparatively young Woman who had been married for ten years and had not conceived, although no attempt had been made to avoid it. She suffered agonies with each menstruation, going to bed every month and relieving her pains with drugs.

A fast of ten days was sufficient to permanently end her menstrual difficulties and shortly after the fast, she conceived for the first time, subsequently giving birth to a healthy baby boy. Another woman much less vigorous and sick for a number of years, took several short fasts before she conceived. Her previous period of sterility was also of about ten years duration. The young Italian woman whose story was recounted at the beginning of this chapter had a fast of thirty days.

Absolute sterility is a comparatively rare condition in both men and women and fasting can do nothing in such cases. When sterility is due to conditions of disease, rather than to defects of development, there is reason to think that both men and women can almost always profit by a fast of sufficient duration to enable the body to clear its abnormal states.

Reprinted from Fasting Can Save Your Life