ABSTRACT
John Bongaarts seems compelled to defend rather than examine his model; in the process he resorts to dubious methods. First he cites Howell as reporting that.275 of 127 women aged 15-50 in 1968 have histories of venereal disease. He fails to note Howell's extensive discussion of the fact that a third of these self-diagnoses occur among the 19 women in the single cohort 35-39. In cohort 35-39 there are three cases of primary sterility, two of which are attributed to venereal disease; this is.105 of the cohort. For cohorts 15-34,.118 of the 76 women are assigned venereally induced primary sterility,.151 from all causes. Bongaarts prefers to use an estimate made by R. D. Lee. Lee calculates a mean birth interval of 39.8 months for 1963-1973, subtracts nine months gestation and assumes three to six months ovulatory infertility before conception; on this basis he obtains 24.8 to 27.8 months postpartum amenorrhea.
