Fertility doctors to test theory that the secret to having a baby might lie in the planets
By Liz Hull
Last updated at 3:54 AM on 15th November 2010
Astrologists tell us that the position of the planets and stars shapes our lives.
But now fertility doctors are to test the theory that the solar system can actually help create life.
It follows claims that a British-based astrologer has succeeded in helping several desperate couples conceive when medical intervention failed.
Nicola Smuts, 42, says she can predict the best or ‘lucky’ time for a woman to become pregnant by analysing the alignment of the planets and comparing it to their positions at the time of her birth.
Although she admits some of her success is down to coincidence, a series of women say she has helped them have children where repeated attempts at IVF have failed.
Mrs Smuts also claims to be able to diagnose medical conditions which inhibit fertility by analysing the couple’s charts.
Now an American chain of IVF clinics is to study her work to see if it will shed light on why fertility treatment works in some women but fails in others.
Mandy Parry, 46, had had seven failed IVF treatments and four miscarriages when she contacted Mrs Smuts for help last year.
The teacher, who lives with her husband, Mark, 47, in Bristol, said she turned to an astrologer as a last resort. She went on to give birth to a healthy daughter, Violet, born through fertility treatment, in May.
‘I met Nicky in June last year and she told me the next good time to conceive was only six weeks away in August,’ Mrs Parry said.
‘I didn’t believe her but I did what she said because I was trying everything. I couldn’t believe it when the treatment worked.’
Catherine Blackledge, a chemist and science writer from Preston, Lancashire, contacted Mrs Smuts following five failed IVF attempts.
‘In the past I wouldn’t have imagined going anywhere near astrology,’ she said.
However, she too gave birth to a healthy daughter, Willow, in May.
Most scientists are at best sceptical about the role of the planets and their link to fertility.
However, it is a fact that the female menstrual cycle broadly follows the 28-day lunar month.
Mrs Smuts, a married mother of two who has had fertility treatment herself, said that women have two or three optimum times of the year for becoming pregnant.
These are based on when the planets are most closely aligned with their positions at their birth. Venus and Jupiter are thought to be the most closely linked to fertility.
Mrs Smuts, the granddaughter of Jan Smuts, the former South African prime minister, asks for a woman’s date of birth, time of day they were born and town of their birth to calculate their ‘lucky times’.
She said: ‘There are about two to three fertile moments in a year in anyone’s chart, at child bearing age, and it would benefit both the patient and the doctor if patients would use astrology to time their treatments.’ In the U.S., researchers at the Shady Grove Fertility chain of clinics want to test her claims by providing her with the birth details of hundreds of their clients.
She will then be asked to calculate the most promising dates for them to attempt conception and the clinic will monitor what happens.
Michael Levy, director of Shady Grove Fertility, told The Sunday Times: ‘I would love to see if there is something in this.
‘It’s very interesting. Lots of our patients benefit from acupuncture, massage, yoga and other complementary therapies and we don’t know how they work either.’
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