Abstract
Interest in Sterility focuses on the efforts carried out by an all-male group of physicians working to create and consolidate the first Mexican association concerned with marital infertility. Analysing the content of the association’s journal (published between 1950 and 1970), it looks at how it justified martial infertility as a medical condition worth studying and treating, how it designated the heterosexual couple as the only acceptable patient, and how it delimited which were the acceptable therapeutic procedures. Overall, this chapter allows us to see the origins of the Mexican system of assisted reproduction from the perspective of those first interested in medically curing infertility (and not, as is usually the case, from the point of the first successful births).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
The Ley Reglamentaria del Articulo 5 Constitucional Relativo al Ejercicio de las Profesiones.
- 2.
A brief note on the different influences the Mexican medicine received during this period: Prior to the 1940s, Mexican medicine was mostly influenced by the French school of medicine; professors taught following the French model of tutors, students used French textbooks, and those who could would spend some time studying in France (in places like Necker hospital, the Hôtel de Dieu, the Broussais, Val de Grace, and the Pasteur Institute in Paris). The first to diverge from this French tradition appeared as early as the mid-1920s; these doctors (among them Salvador Zubirán) chose the USA, particularly Boston and Johns Hopkins. The breakout of the Second World War also contributed to shifting the attention from Europe to the USA, since students could no longer go to France to further their studies and thus turned to the USA. Furthermore, when the USA joined the war, jobs at hospitals became available, thus making the USA an attractive place to study and work. In parallel, as a result of the political turmoil in Spain, during the 1930s and 1940s Mexico received a considerable number of Spanish immigrants, including physicians (approx 500), scientists, and scholars in general (Soberón et al., 1989).
- 3.
Until 1944, gynaecology and obstetrics were separated fields. Before the unification, gynaecology was a subsidiary field within surgery while obstetrics was a recognised area in and of itself. One of the steps towards this unification was the formation of the Asociación Mexicana de Ginecología y Obstetricia (Mexican Association of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, AMGO), declaring their object of study the understanding of the female reproductive system. The next step was the unification of these two areas in the medical curricula; which happened, in the case of the UNAM, in 1956 and in the hospitals IMSS, ISSSTE, SSA, in 1959.
- 4.
The Mexican Urology Society began publishing their journal in 1943; both the society and their journal are still active today. The Mexican Association of Gynaecology and Obstetrics started publishing their journal in 1947. Both, the association and the journal, still exist today, but the association has changed its name now to Colegio Mexicano de Ginecología y Obstetricia, COMEGO.
- 5.
An analysis from a gender perspective of the association’s history, as well as of the field of assisted reproduction in general, is worthwhile; however, that is not the purpose of this chapter.
- 6.
At least in recent years, the practice of keeping the material history of the association has been poor. The early material past (journal numbers, proceedings, photographs, articles, etc.) has been lost. The stories that remain have been passed down orally or through publications that appear elsewhere.
- 7.
The journal was a beauty. Printed in black and white and with hand drawings, it published nine articles on average per issue and printed 1500 copies of each issue. At the beginning, the journal was published four times a year, then, in 1956, it reduced to three, with some years bundling two issues in one. The last issue was published in 1970. Although the journal charged an annual fee ($4 US dollars), it sold issues separately, and sold adverts, it always claimed to be struggling financially. I offered to scan what remains of the journal but the AMMR was not interested. In contrasts, Fertility and Sterility, a journal that began publication around the same time, today is digitally available.
- 8.
Here I take Haraway’s use of remember as an action of reunite, reconnect, reassemble a story, not necessarily as it was once told, but taking elements that had been dismembered (Haraway, 2015).
- 9.
For example, in the ten-year anniversary of the INPer published by Samuel Karchmer in 1993 or the journal Ginecología y Obstetricia de México, which is in very similar conditions to Sterility Studies, no library holds a full set and there are entire numbers missing.
- 10.
“El 20 de Mayo de 1949 […] un grupo de connotados y dinámicos médicos, se reunieron para gestar esta Asociación, formular con un estatuto sus normas de vida y trabajo, con fines nobles, científicos, culturales y patróticos. Su meta a perseguir […] ha tenído […] el objetivo estrictamente científico, de estudiar los problemas y divulgar los conocimeintos acerca de la esterilidad, de la infertilidad y afines, empleando para ello los conocmientos y prácticas de las ciencias médicas, biológicas y sociales” (Valdés la Vallina, 1964).
- 11.
For example, Francisco Gómez Mont was director of the endocrinology department of the Hospital de Enfermedades de la Nutrición and is considered one of the last century’s most prominent endocrinologists in Mexico. Alfonso Álvarez Bravo was the head of the gynaecology service at the Spanish Hospital. Isidro Espinosa de los Reyes, as described in the previous chapter, was the founder of the puericulture movement in México.
- 12.
These meetings were first held at the Hospital Concepción Béistegui (Regina 8), then during the 1960s they used a conference room at the AMGO’s newly acquired building (Baja California 311, Roma), and in 2003 they bought their own office at the World Trade Centre.
- 13.
Between 1855 and 1863, the period ruled by the liberal Constitution of 1857, the Leyes de Reforma were written and approved. These laws had the purpose of creating a stronger secular state by eliminating the privileges of the Roman Catholic Church, thus diminishing its power. The Constitution of 1917 followed the same path of limiting the Church’s privileges and power. This constitution stated that education must be scientific, secular, and fighting against fanaticism. It stated that priests and ministers of religion cannot vote or hold public office; they cannot use religious garb in public, and they set a limit to the number of priest per area.
- 14.
This section draws heavily from the articles published in Sterility Studies. As mentioned above, this is a rich journal that has been neglected; there are only two copies left. I hope that readers of this book find this journal as fascinating as I have.
- 15.
Examples of these efforts can be found in several articles published in the Sterility Studies, for example, “Trascendencia de la esterilidad” (Sordo Noriega, 1951); “Plan de organización de la lucha contra la esterilidad conjugal” (Alvarez Bravo, 1952); “Consideraciones sobre la clasificación etio-patológica de la infertilidad” (Santillana, 1952); “Meditaciones sobre la asociación mexicana para el estudio de la esterilidad” (Arzac, 1959).
- 16.
Such as: the Hospital Español, Hospital General, Hospital Juarez, Clinica 2 de Ginecología del IMSS, and the Servicio de Esterilidad del SS.
- 17.
There is mention of marital sterility as early as 1889, in a paper written by Dr. Lier published in the Gaceta Médica de México (est. 1864). There he highlights the importance of studying both women and men; he mentions the use of sperm sample studies and reports that infertility is due to male causes in 44.7% of the cases and to female causes in 55.3% of the cases (in Álvarez Bravo, 1989, 2: 112).
- 18.
This concept of marital sterility was not exclusive to the Mexican community of physicians, it is also used, for example, by Willis Brown in his Review on Sterility Investigation published in Fertility and Sterility in 1955.
- 19.
If we look at the discipline and clinical activity today, we find that, at the AR clinic, men are mainly studied by the embryologist and laboratory staff (they process, evaluate, and prepare the sperm sample), otherwise they are sent to see the urologist and only in some cases to the andrologist, since only some gynaecologists perform testicular biopsies. Likewise, at conferences presenters rarely talk about the male factors; one example is the 2018 Course on Novelties in Reproduction, a two-day event with 37 presentations of which only one was on male factor and it was from the perspective of the laboratory. This resonates with a comment a male physician made when we were talking about the incorporation of andrology (an area focused on male reproductive endocrinology and physiology) to the field of reproductive medicine, he said: “I studied gynaecology to treat women, not men” (Field Notes, interview with Dr. G, 2007). This comment might be pointing towards a tension in the field’s demarcation that might have been in operation since these early days.
- 20.
In this case specifically concerning artificial fertilisation.
- 21.
Establishing a causal relationship between postponing pregnancy and the use of contraception with infertility is still a common argument today. The causal relation is sometimes framed as “the effects of the hormones in contraception make you infertile”, or “delaying pregnancy mans promiscuity and thus sexually transmitted diseases”, and finally “delaying pregnancy makes for an older woman with a diminished fertility”.
- 22.
See the previous chapter for a full discussion.
References
Álvarez Bravo, A. (1952). Plan de Organización de la lucha contra la esterilidad conyugal. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, 3(1), 1.
Arteaga Elizondo, O. (1961, Mayo–Agosto). Consideraciones Psicológicas, morales y jurídicas sobre la inseminación artificial humana. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 7(2), 59.
Arzac, P. (1956, Enero–Abril). Infrome del Presidente de la Asociación Mexicana de Estudios de la Esterilidad correspondiente al periodo 1953–1955. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, VII(1), 49.
Arzac, J. P. (1959). Meditaciones sobre la Asociación Mexicana para Estudios de la Esterilidad. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 10(2), 147.
Callon, M., Law, J., & Rip, A. (Eds.). (1986). Mapping the dynamics of science and technology. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07408-2.
Castelazo Ayala, L. (1959, Mayo–Agosto). Discurso del Dr. Castelazo Ayala. Presidente entrante de la AMEE. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 10(2), 5.
Castelazo Ayala, L. (1960). Importancia de la instrucción prenupcial. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, 11(3), 142.
Castro, E. (1959, Mayo–Agosto). UN urólogo en deuda con la Asociación Mexicana para Estudios sobre la Esterilidad. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 10(2).
Colmeiro-Lafortet, C. (1952, Abril). La falta de orgasmo como causa de esterilidad. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, III(2), 57.
Freidson, E. (1988). Profession of medicine: A study of the sociology of applied knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gallo, D. (1960). Frigidez, Orgasmo y Esterilidad. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, 11(3), 151.
González-Gutierrez, J. T. (1962). La adopción en matrimonios definitivamente estériles. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, 13(3), 137–146.
González-Santos, S. P. (2011). Space, structure and social dynamics within the clinical setting: Two case studies of assisted reproduction in Mexico City. Health & Place, 17(1), 166–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.09.013.
González-Santos, S. P. (2016). Peregrinar: el ritual de la reproducción asistida. In C. Straw, E. Vargas, M. Viera Cherro, & M. Tamanini (Eds.), Rerpodução Assistida: e relações de género na América liana. Curitiba, Braisl: Ed. CRV.
Goode, W. J. (1960). The profession: Reports and opinion. Encroachment, charlatanism, and the emerging professions: Psychology medicine and sociology. American Sociological Review, 25(6), 902–914. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2089988.
Guerrero, D. C. (1953). Progesos y Problemas a Resolver en la Esterilidad. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 4(4), 198.
Guerrero, D. C. (1954). Aspectos Sociales de la Esterilidad. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 5(1), 29.
Guerrero, D. C. (1964). Management of the infertile couple: 25 years’ experience. Fertility and Sterility, 15(5), 534–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0015-0282(16)35348-1.
Haraway, D. J. (2015). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge.
Larson, M. S. (1977). The rise of professionalism: A sociological analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lozano, J. L. (1952, Julio). EL factor psico-somático en la infertilidad de la mujer. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, III(3), 153.
Murillo, E. G., & Valdez la Vallina, F. (1953, Abril). Factores etiológicos de esterilidada en 100 parejas. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, IV(2), 90.
Pope Pius XII. (1956). Discurso de S.S. Pio XII a los Miembros del Segundo Congreso Mundial de Fertilidad y Esterilidad. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 7(2–3).
Prados, F. J., Debrock, S., Lemmen, J. G., & Agerholm, I. (2012). The cleavage stage embryo. Human Reproduction, 27(suppl 1), i50–i71. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/des224.
Ramirez, S. (1960, Septiembre–Diciembre). Factores Culturales en la Esterilidad e Infertilidad. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, XI(3), 146.
Ramírez, C. S. (1962). Esterilidad y fruto: Psicología de la función procreativa. México: Pax-México.
Santillana, M. (1952, Octubre). Consideraciones sobre las calisficación etio-patogéncia de la infertilidad. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, III(4), 211. AMEE.
Shetty, A., Shetty, S., & Dsouza, O. (2014). Medical symbols in practice: Myths vs reality. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research: JCDR, 8(8), PC12–PC14. https://doi.org/10.7860/jcdr/2014/10029.4730.
Soberón, G., Kumate, J., Laguna, J. (compliladores). C. Valdés (coordinador). (1989). La Salud en México: Testimonios 1988. Especialidades Médicas en México (Tomo IV. Vols. 1 and 2). Secretaría de Salud. INSP. El Colegio Nacional. FCE: Biblioteca de la Salud.
Sordo Noriega, A. (1951). Trascendencia de la Esterilidad. Estudios Sobre Esterilidad, 3(3), 113–115.
Tesauro, G. (1956). Conference programme. In International Fertility Association. Naples.
Valdés la Vallina, F., (1954). Orientación internacional actual sobre esterilidad masculina, V(1), 14–23.
Valdés la Vallina, F. (1964, Mayo–Agosto). Primera Reunión Anual de la AMEE Discurso del Presidente. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, XV(2), 56.
Vázquez-Benítez, E. (2008, Julio–Septiembre). La Asociación Mexicana de Medicina de la Reproducción 1949–2008. Revista Mexicana de Medicina de la Reproducción, 1(1), 3–14.
Weisman, A. (1953, Abril). La infertilidad marital debida a problemas emocionales no orgánicos. Estudios sobre Esterilidad, IV(2), 85.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
González-Santos, S.P. (2020). Interest in Sterility. In: A Portrait of Assisted Reproduction in Mexico. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23041-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23041-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23040-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23041-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)