Fertility Treatment

This story is a work of fiction. Some real institutions are mentioned, but they are used fictitiously. Insofar as the author knows, no real person affiliated with any of those institutions has ever behaved as described in this story. Any similarities between any character in this story and any real person are coincidental and unintended. I encourage comments on this story, both favorable and unfavorable. Thank you for reading.

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I met my wife when we were both in college in Chicago. I had been a powerlifter in high school and continued to lift in college. In my freshman year, I did rather well in a competition that was attended by the University's Strength & Conditioning Coach, Paul Grant. Paul offered me a position as a student volunteer on his staff. Sophomore year I was assigned to work with the swim teams and met a beautiful blonde diver named Heidi Soames.

Heidi was also a sophomore. She was just a bit shorter than my 5'11" and had straight, shoulder-length blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a dazzling smile. Heidi also had a narrow waist and long, shapely legs that presented a good line as she entered the water. Less relevant to her scores, but significant to me was the fact that Heidi had slightly larger breasts and more shapely hips than is customary for a diver. Along with being very personable, she was also bright. She was an engineering student.

Heidi impressed me. On my own time, I undertook an intensive study of the biomechanics of diving to try to find conditioning programs that would improve Heidi's performance. After some effort, I persuaded the diving coach to recruit a gymnastics instructor to work part-time with Heidi and the other divers. While it was much more her talent than anything I contributed, Heidi won the conference in 10-meter platform as a senior and finished third at the NCAAs.

The effort I expended on Heidi Sommers was not entirely altruistic, and I did have a payoff: we started dating beginning of junior year and became lovers soon thereafter. Something in our personalities meshed and, by graduation, we were serious. Heidi went to Columbus to get her master's in structural engineering. Through Paul's connections, I was accepted into that university's mater's in sports science program. Two years later, Heidi and I received our master's degrees in May and were married in her hometown outside Cleveland in June.

We stayed in Columbus. Heidi got a job with an architectural firm and I joined the University's huge strength and conditioning staff. A couple of years later, three members of the staff better connected in Columbus than me left to start a sports academy focused on high school athletes. I went with them.

While we were plain vanilla, Heidi and I had started having sex regularly in undergrad and that continued through grad school and into our marriage. I guess our backgrounds in athletics made us more focused on our bodies. We both worked hard to stay in shape and to give each other pleasure. It helped that I loved Heidi passionately and was convinced she was the most beautiful, sexiest woman alive.

We started trying to have a child at age 26. Heidi was an only child whom her parents had in their forties. While Heidi was only in her mid-twenties, her parents were already approaching 70. Heidi thought that was too big an age gap between parents and child and had set a hard deadline to give birth before she turned 30. The problem was that we couldn't get Heidi pregnant.

We went through tests, exams, and sperm counts without identifying the source of the problem. After about 18 months, we had a sit down with Heidi's GYN, Dr. Sue Stolz. "Ordinarily, the next step would be in vitro fertilization," Dr. Stolz told us. "As you know, that is invasive, expensive, and not guaranteed. I'm going to refer you to Dr. Bev Crawford. Dr. Crawford can do in vitro, but she's also developing some non-invasive techniques to induce pregnancy. You two might be candidates to try those before you go the in vitro route."

Heidi and I filled out an extensive questionnaire before we met with Dr. Crawford. In addition to asking for detailed medical histories, it also asked how frequently we had sex, the positions we used in sex, whether we had ever had sex with anyone else watching, and whether we had ever gone nude in public. Our answers were four or five times per week, missionary and occasionally cowgirl, no, and yes once (Heidi and I had gone to a nude beach on our honeymoon).

Dr. Crawford was a rather severe-looking woman, I'm guessing around 50, who was starting to go grey. Her office occupied an entire floor of a newish five story office building just off I-270 on the north side. At our first meeting, she started the conversation by saying, "I've reviewed your records from Dr. Stolz. Her referral letter suggests that you may be candidates for our alternative therapy. I've also reviewed your responses to our questionnaire, and I think Dr. Stolz may be correct. Let me ask you, you said that you have gone nude in public, how many times?"

"Just once on our honeymoon," Heidi answered. "Will and I went to a nude beach one day. We were in the Caribbean and we thought 'no one here knows us so why not?'"

"Did you enjoy that experience?" Dr. Crawford asked.

"Um, well, yeah," Heidi replied. "It was different but liberating and pretty fun."

"Will?" Dr. Crawford asked.

"Sure," I replied. "Who wouldn't enjoy running around naked on a beach with Heidi?"

"Have you ever thought about going nude in public again?" Dr. Crawford asked.

"We talked about it a little right after our honeymoon," Heidi replied, "but there aren't any beaches around here and, well, that's not something people like us do."

"And you've never engaged in group sex or had sex with someone else watching?" Dr. Crawford asked.

"No!" Heidi responded.

"Would you consider doing that if I can convince you of its therapeutic value?" Dr. Crawford asked.

"I really want to get pregnant," Heidi said. "I'll do almost anything."

"Good," Dr. Crawford replied. "I think you may be good candidates for our alternative therapy. If that doesn't work, we can move to in vitro. However, the alternative is much less expensive and non-invasive. It makes sense to me to try it first."

"What is this alternative therapy?" I asked.

"I have to emphasize," Dr. Crawford said, "that this is very new in fertility treatment and not without some controversy." She paused before starting her explanation. "Medicine in general has not really begun to understand the effect which the brain has on the body. It is difficult to study the brain and almost impossible, at present, to conclusively prove a causal link between a body condition and your psychology. Indeed, it is pretty much impossible to measure or test your psychology. We infer your psychological condition from what you tell us and what we observe. That makes it even more difficult to identify and deal with psychological conditions that are subconscious because you are not aware of them and cannot report them."

"Ok," I said, "but, with respect, what does that have to do with us and the fact that Heidi is not getting pregnant? We both want her to get pregnant. We don't have any psychological hang ups about sex with each other."

"You only control some of your brain functions," Dr. Crawford replied. "The brain reacts to stimuli of which you are not conscious and can produce effects you do not consciously desire."

"Ok," I said again, "You know more about it than I do. What does that mean for us?"

"There is research," Dr. Crawford said, "suggesting that, if it is done at the correct time in a woman's cycle, having sex in a highly erotic environment significantly increases the probability of that sex resulting in pregnancy. We are not certain of the reasons, but we think that the erotic stimulus, beyond the normal stimuli of intercourse, causes the female body to secrete minute quantities of hormones which may make the difference between getting pregnant and not getting pregnant. Many men have a subconscious aversion to fatherhood which may be manifest in the man's sperm being effectively inert. The thinking is that putting the man in an erotic environment in which he breaks down barriers to sexual behavior may also break down that subconscious barrier to fertilization."

"So," Heidi asked, "how does this work? Do we look at porn?"

"Dr. Crawford smiled. "No, it is more interactive than that. We try to identify situations which will be highly arousing to you and then put you in those situations and ask you to have intercourse while experiencing the situation. Would you have any religious or moral objections to doing that?"

"Everything is consensual, right?" Heidi asked.

"Very much so," Dr. Crawford answered.

"We're not talking about getting tied up and whipped, are we?" I asked.

"We don't use situations which involve physical pain," Dr. Crawford replied. "Pain causes the release of hormones that are, crudely stated, part of the body's defense system. Those hormones would, we believe, tend to interfere with rather than encourage, pregnancy."

"No animals or underage kids." I said.

"No animals or underage kids," Dr. Crawford confirmed.

"How does the cost of this therapy compare to the cost on in vitro?" I asked.

"The cost of our alternative therapy ranges between ten and twenty percent the cost of in vitro fertilization," Dr. Crawford said. "The variable is the number of treatments. The idea is for patients to undergo a single treatment session. We might recommend a second if there is some reason to think the patients were prevented from receiving the full effect of the first treatment, but, if two treatments do not produce a pregnancy, we would discontinue the alternative treatment and recommend in vitro."

Heidi took my hand. We silently looked in each other's eyes for, maybe, two or three minutes. In my mind, this was her call. If she wanted to try the alternative therapy, I'd give it 100%. Finally, Heidi squeezed my hand and said, "I guess we can get kinky a time or two if that's what it takes to get a child."

"Good," Dr. Crawford said. "We want you to observe a treatment first, so you know what you are getting into and are giving informed consent. Also, if you see a treatment and then anticipate going through something similar yourselves, that seems to enhance the erotic effect and likely increases the level of hormonal activity. My staff will schedule you for an observation session."

Heidi and I were back in Dr. Crawford's offices about a week later. It was early afternoon. We were two of about a dozen people in the waiting room, all couples. Periodically, a young woman or man in a lab coat would enter the waiting room, call a couple's names, and escort them back. The group dwindled until only Heidi, me, and another couple remained in the waiting room.

"Are you here for treatment?" the woman of the other couple asked. I hadn't paid them much attention until she spoke. I guessed they were three or four years older than us. What I could see of the woman as she sat was copper-colored hair, a pretty face, large breasts, and nice knees and calves extending from a mid-thigh skirt. The man looked slender, like a distance runner. He had short dark hair, was clean shaven, and had a slightly stern expression.

"No, we're here to observe a treatment," Heidi replied to the woman.

"So are we," the woman said. "I'm Glenda, this is Mark."

"I'm Heidi and this is my husband Will," Heidi responded.

Shortly after that, a young man in a white coat came into the waiting room. "Glenda? Mark? Heidi? Will?" he asked. We all nodded. "Hi, I'm Dr. Batchelor," the man said. "I'll be with you while you observe a treatment session to explain what's going on and answer any questions. First, I need to you sign some releases. Basically, these say that you are consenting to watch people engaged in sexual acts, we aren't forcing you. You also agree that you will not take any pictures. If you recognize anyone undergoing treatment, now or later, you agree never to disclose that you saw the person here or what you saw the person doing."

We spent a few minutes reading the forms. They said what the Doctor had said they said. When we had all signed and Dr. Batchelor had collected the forms, he asked "Ready?" We all nodded, hesitantly.

Dr. Batchelor led us out of the waiting room, down a long hallway, and into a small, dark room. "You are looking through a one-way window into the pre-treatment room," he said."

It took a moment, but I recognized the other four couples from the waiting room in the pre-treatment room. What slowed me down was that none of them had on the clothes I'd seen them in earlier. All eight people were nude, not only nude but lewd. One man was standing with an erection as one nude woman, presumably his spouse, stroked him while two other nude women watched. The other three men were standing looking at the fourth woman. She was sitting on a padded chair with her legs spread fingering herself. As we stood there, one of the three men turned from watching the masturbating woman. He grabbed one of the standing women from behind with a hand over each breast. He pulled her until his erect dick was between her buttocks and began kissing (or biting) her neck.

I suppose I should have been disgusted, but it was a riveting scene. Heidi, Glenda, and Mark were standing next to me staring too.

"We have found," Dr. Batchelor said, "that, although they won't admit it, most people find it very arousing to be naked, engaged in pre-intercourse sexual conduct, in front of others and are almost equally aroused by watching others do the same thing. The couples undergoing treatment undress in another part of the office and are brought together here. We came in a bit late. At the start of pre-treatment, one of our staff is also in the room, clothed of course. She instructs the patients to display their genitalia to each other. After everyone's gotten a good look at everyone else, she instructs them to stimulate their partners and/or themselves as openly as possible and to watch each other while they do that. Dr. Crawford is observing from another room. When she assesses everyone is at the proper state of arousal, the staffer will go back in and take them to the treatment room."

A minute or two later, a young woman in a lab coat entered the pre-treatment room. She seemed pretty. I assumed she had clothes under the lab coat, but all I could see were her bare legs beneath the coat. Instead of the low rubber-soled shoes I'd always seen in medical offices, the staffer wore heels. She spoke to the nude group, but the sound was not carried into the room we occupied. Finishing whatever she had to say, she opened a door opposite the one she had come in. The nude patients followed her through that door.

Dr. Batchelor said, "I'm going to take you to the treatment room gallery." He opened the door and led us into the hallway, walking opposite the direction we had come from. After walking 15 or so feet, he opened a door. We followed him through it and up about four steps. We were in a dimly lit circular room. The patients were on mats on the floor below us. Around the perimeter of the room, maybe nine feet off the floor, was a row of theater seats. Dr. Batchelor went into the row of seats. At the fifth seat, he sat down and gestured for us to do the same. On the other side of the room, I could see Dr. Crawford sitting, flanked by two people in lab coats holding small I-pad computers.

The four couples were each seated on a mat. The staffer who had led them in was standing in the center of the room. We could hear her now. "As you know," she told the patients, "you're here to have intercourse. That's a very impersonal term. We want you to make love to each other. Of course, your ultimate goal is to produce a baby, but your immediate goal should be to give your partner as much pleasure as possible. Our research suggests that will enhance the likelihood that the ladies will become pregnant as a result of today's lovemaking. Feel free to look at other couples while you make love. There are also some people in seats along the wall watching you. But, don't feel that you are here to show off, unless that helps you achieve orgasm. We ask everyone to stay until both partners have achieved orgasm, otherwise the treatment likely has no effect. If any couple wants to try for multiple orgasms, you are welcome to stay. We encourage that."

The female staffer walked to a place in the wall below the seats where there was a coat hook. "When you are done, please go back into the pre-treatment room. Judy and Karen will be there to discuss follow-up procedures. I will stay in this room as long as any couple is still making love. If you need anything, just raise your hand and I'll take care of you. We have learned that I am less of a distraction if I fit in, so..." With that the young woman unbuttoned her lab coat and hung it on the hook. I had been wrong. She wasn't wearing anything under the coat.

The four couples turned their attentions to their partners. Soon, all four had achieved penetration. I noted that all four couples used missionary position. We were seated close enough to see all eight people's faces. I guess I expected some to look shocked at what they were doing or like they were acting under compulsion. Not so. All eight appeared to be enjoying themselves completely.

I had never been much for porn or strip clubs. Thus, I would not have expected to be as aroused as I was watching eight strangers fuck. My dick was feeling very constrained in my boxers and trousers. I wondered if Heidi was as turned on as I was. I lifted my hand and rubbed it across the front of her top. Her left nipple was rock hard. Heidi leaned her mouth to my ear and whispered, "Jesus! This is so hot."

After ten minutes or so, one couple traded positions, the man getting on the bottom on his back and his partner on top. She had full, round tits. Watching those bounce as she rode him only added to my voyeuristic arousal.

After maybe twenty-five minutes, the moans and groans suggested that at least one or two couples were close to coming. The nude female staffer noticed that too. She announced, "men, remember that every bit of your semen must go into your partner's vagina to maximize the chances of pregnancy." A couple minutes later, one couple obviously, and nosily, came. After they were clearly finished, the staffer opened a cabinet built into the wall, took out two towels, brought the towels to the woman and man, and escorted them to the door to the pre-treatment room. That action repeated three more times over the next fifteen or so minutes. It didn't seem like anyone tried for multiple orgasms.

After the last couple finished, Dr. Batchelor said to us, "If you'd please go out the way you came in." Heidi and I followed Glenda and Mark back into the fully lit hallway. Glenda's eyes were wide, her face flushed, and her nipples almost poking through her top. Mark's trousers were doing little to conceal his boner. Neither, I suppose were mine. The four of us just looked at each other.

Dr. Batchelor came out after another couple of minutes. He was smiling. "That's the treatment," he said. "If you opt to go through with the treatment, you will do something like what you saw just now. Any questions?"

"Have the patient couples met each other before treatment day?" Glenda asked.

"Sometimes," Dr. Batchelor replied, "couples who were here to observe at the same time come in for treatment at the same time. But it is not planned that the patient couples should meet each other in advance of undergoing the treatment. We think that uncertainty about who will be receiving treatment with you adds to the erotic experience."

"How much extra do you pay that woman who stripped off while the patients were fucking?" Mark asked.