My six-year-old boy， David， recently ex ~laincd to me his view<br >of the facts of life. "Fir，t， you have Io have a mommy ~md a daddy.<br >The baby slar~s out a.s a liltle squirn~ inside Daddy. Well， actually<br >it s called a sperm. It looks just like a tadpole. It swims th rough a<br >Immel ill Mommy s belly. Then it finds her egg somehow arid be-<br >t，3mes a baby." Unfortunalely， many adtdts don l understaad this<br >process much betlet than my lithe ~ix-ycar-old. Yet 15 percent of<br >Ameriean co~tple~ art- infertile， and desperalely desire to hive<br >children.<br > David tben went on to ask， I l.)add~， ， I dolL t really see how the<br >sperm knows where to fil*d the egg; and what if， when he gets<br >tberei there isu t ally egt~?" An answer to that seemitlgly simple<br >queslion will help the maiorily of infertile touples to obtain their<br >dream: a baby.<br > A couple s awareuess of lbeir inability to have children usually<br >creeps tip very slowly. A retent palient of mine had been on birll~<br >t~tatrol pills for eight years， waiting ut，til the day whoa she could"<br >plal~ to have a haby When ~bc fiaally discontiltued tile pill， tll~<br >month~ and ~earx wellt aKonizingly b~. . ~ith no pregnaltty and she<br >eu~ed each lueastnml period. Iler husband was unwilling Io have<br >h[~ sperm checked， because he felt that anyone as virile ~t~ be could<br >not possibly be infertilt~. TI~e patieal herself had a rt~utine<br >k ~naecological cxaminatioll which showed ito abl~ormabty， but the<br >physician seeing her tben bad no parlicular illterest in fertility. It<br > t<br >