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Human Reproduction, Vol. 17, No. 3, 528-533, March 2002
© 2002 European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology

Alternative treatments in reproductive medicine: much ado about nothing

`The fact that millions of people do not master arithmetic does not prove that two times two is anything else than four': W.F.Hermans

C.N.M. Renckens,*

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Westfries Gasthuis, 1620 AR Hoorn, The Netherlands. E mail: renckens{at}xs4all.nl

The popularity of alternative medicine certainly also affects patients suffering from infertility. Alternative medicine started in the seventies but there have always been unorthodox practitioners, treating infertile women and men. Some historical examples will be described. The claims made for alternative medicine in the lay press have not been accompanied by similar reports in the mainstream medical journals. Practitioners and advocates of alternative medicine have used several strategies to defend their position. These were mostly of a philosophical nature, but more recently the practitioners of alternative medicine admit that the effectiveness of their therapies should be proven in randomized trials, as is considered mandatory in regular medicine. There are very few well-designed papers on the effectiveness of alternative medicine with the exception of one kind of paper that is hard for editors of medical journals to resist: seemingly impeccable papers proving absurd claims, whose mechanisms of action are, for instance, completely incomprehensible. We argue that this type of paper should be rejected for publication and indeed offer explanations for their mere existence.

Key words: acupuncture/alternative medicine/homeopathy/intercessory prayer/quackery

* The author is chairman of Dutch Union against Quackery


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