'I DID NOT make this man's wife pregnant!'

We bring you exclusive excerpts from Dr Firuza Parikh's book The complete guide to becoming pregnant. Parikh is India's foremost fertility expert.

Dr Firuza Parikh is one of India's most renowned fertility expert who has helped thousands of chidless couples concieve.

In her book, The complete guide to becoming pregnant, she talks extensively about artificial insemination and Indians' approach towards it. Sometimes however, she points out, couples need time out, a vacation to take them away from the stress and humdrum of everyday life.

The following excerpt is about one such Mumbai-based couple

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Purnima* and Mitesh* were a young and dynamic couple.

Mitesh was deeply committed -- to the stock market and, to a lesser extent, his wife. His daily life was full of stress!

When Rajesh evaluated them, he found Mitesh to be anxious and Purnima depressed.

On examining their medical records, Rajesh was intrigued by the enormous fluctuation in Mitesh's semen analysis reports.

They went from a few thousand sperm to several million per millilitre in a matter of weeks, and then came down again.

Rajesh pointed out to them that stress has a negative impact on sperm production.

He gently enquired if the periods of low semen counts coincided with the stressful periods in Mitesh's life. He also commenced Purnima on antidepressant medication.

The following week, Mitesh came to Rajesh's office and barged in without an appointment exclaiming, 'Dr Parikh, you are a genius! Let me show you why.'

To Rajesh's amazement, Mitesh had plotted a graph covering the past two years of the Sensex in blue, his financial gains in green, arid his semen counts in red! And lo and behold, the three graphs synchronized perfectly! In other words, when the Sensex went down, and the bullish Mitesh lost money, his semen count went down too.

The one time his count was at its highest was during a holiday in Australia.

Rajesh phoned me and said, 'Firuza, this couple needs a vacation more than our treatment.' Sure enough, they went to New Zealand for a month and returned with a positive pregnancy test.

But the story doesn't end there.

The day they received the pregnancy report, Mitesh came with a big cake for Rajesh. As usual, in his excitement, he wanted to barge into the office without an appointment.

This time Rajesh firmly requested him to wait while he attended to his other patients. Suddenly Gita, Rajesh's secretary, called him and said, 'Sir, I think you should see him immediately. He is excitedly telling everybody that you got his wife pregnant!'

Rajesh stepped out, hugged Mitesh, accepted his cake, and told everyone present, 'I did not, repeat, did not, make this man's wife pregnant. He alone is guilty of the act!'

Purnima and Mitesh are among the most grateful patients we have had.

They have a lovely son and daughter, and every Diwali and Parsi New Year they shower us with their blessings and gifts.

Mitesh also regularly offers Rajesh stock market tips, which are always ignored -- we love reading Pablo Neruda more than the pink pages of newspapers.

The only bonus issues we know of are twins!

Excerpted from The complete guide to becoming pregnant by Dr Firuza Parikh.

*Names changed upon request