An Evaluation of Traditional Therapy for Barrenness

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Abstract
Traditional medicine has been recommended as an adjunct to cosmopolitan medicine, although for a variety of reasons its efficacy is difficult to evaluate. Kenyan traditional medical practitioners consider the treatment of barrenness to be a field in which they have special expertise, a belief shared by their clients. Data collected while observing 48 healers indicate that, regardless of technique and despite a high incidence of physical impediments to conception, they are successful in treating approximately one‐third of their patients. This is similar to rates reported in other countries without biomedical therapy but under conditions of stress reduction. Recent studies are beginning to confirm the effects of stress on human physiology and to suggest that culturally appropriate traditional therapeutic modalities may serve to reduce it.