ABSTRACT
The quest to understand and/or cure infertility has existed, across cultures, for centuries. Early Egyptians appear to have logged the first recorded diagnosis for infertility on papyri scribed between 2200 and 1500 BC.1 There are multiple references to ‘barren’ women in the bible and their quest for children.2 The Qua’ran contains two main accounts of infertility3 and also makes reference to a woman, Aysa, who remained childless due to her husband’s impotency.4 References to artificial insemination in humans are found in Talmudic documents, written more than three centuries ago, which record rabbis discussing the status of a woman hypothetically impregnated by semen previously deposited in bathwater.5 Early reference may also be found to King Henry IV of Seville – often referred to as ‘le-impotente’ – regarding attempts to impregnate his wife in the 1400s using artificial insemination with his sperm.6 However, ‘cures’ for infertility eluded people for thousands of years, and often continue to do so.
