... Yet the question remained, how could a pregnancy be initiated at a time when ovulation was not supposed to be occurring? The data seemed to suggest that more than one ovum was released each month. What triggers this additional ovulation? Dr. Kurt Rechnitz, having tested Jonas' method (Lunar Phase Method) in practice and having found it to work with a high degree of accuracy, began to seek a physiological explanation of Jonas' moon-phase theory.

In order to comprehend this method, he says, we must begin with the female reproductive cycle. The endometrium, or uteral mucous membrane, empties during menstruation. under the influence of the follicular hormone. It then grows again until the fifteenth day when a follicle ruptures and an ovum is released and sent on its way to the uterus. If sperm come into contact with the ovum, fertilization can occur at this time. In the ovary, the ruptured follicle is transformed into what is called a "yellow body" (the corpus luteum), which conditions the uteral membrane by means of its hormone and prepares it for pregnancy. If fertilization does not take place, however, then about fourteen days later the yellow body perishes, the hormone level drops, and menstruation appears.

The activity of the ovaries - and in particular the ripening of the follicle, its rupture and transformation into a yellow body - is governed by the pituitary gland, which itself is under the influence of another part of the brain, the hypothalamus.

Since it is the ruptured follicle that prepares the uterus for the fertilized ovum, it would seem obvious, Rechnitz points out, that conception can only take place close to the time of the follicle's rupture.

"This is in fact true for the majority of mammals," he says. "However, there are a few exceptions. In the ovary of the cat or hare, for instance, mature follicles are always present, ready to burst. Nevertheless, these follicles do not burst of their own accord. The rupture always takes place during copulation. This means, that for such mammals, conception can occur at any time [or in other words, virtually whenever sexual intercourse occurs]. For humans as well, both methods are possible.

"In the case of an adult woman, one ovum is liberated from the mature follicle on the fourteenth or fifteenth day of her cycle, unless she is already pregnant. However, this process - and hence conception - can also take place at any time during the menstrual cycle. Biologically, there is a possibility that tension, due to the effect of certain moon phases, builds up in the woman's nervous and hormone systems, which, in the event of sexual intercourse, leads to the rupture of the follicle and thus conception. It is no accident that this connection was recognized by a psychiatrist and not by an obstetrician."

Dr. Rechnitz asserts that it is surprising that conception occurs more often at the repeated intervals of the lunar phase than at the cyclical rupture of the follicle around the fifteenth day after the start of menstruation when the endometrium and in fact the entire organism are prepared for pregnancy.

Conception also can occur when the lunar phase coincides with the time of menstruation, despite the fact that at this time the endometrium. is the least suitable to receive a fertilized ovum. "This situation is difficult to explain," Rechnitz says.

The angle of the lunar phase that existed at the time of the mother's birth and which repeats itself about every 29 1/2 days (while the moon alternates between signs of male and female or positive and negative) can be precisely calculated if the woman's time of birth is known with sufficient accuracy.

Does the recurring moon-phase angle work in some ways like a biological clock - a rhythm beginning at a woman's birth and regulating fertility through its influence on the hypothalamus, pituitary, and glandular hormones? The Center for Cycles Research affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh has data showing that cycles, rhythms, and harmonies are constantly influencing living things; even the activity of the cells in our bodies is cyclic. Dr. B. Chance reported a 160-second chemical cycle in cells at a December 1966 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Rechnitz points out another curious factor: the ability to conceive seems to intensify cumulatively with each recurring angle of the lunar phase. This finding is supported by the fact that pregnancies had been achieved by utilizing the lunar phase theory in cases of both primary and secondary sterility - of course, only in cases where no obstacles of anatomical, hormonal, or similar nature existed.

In a letter to us, Dr. Rechnitz reports he is preparing a detailed book in connection with the overall lunarphase theory. "So far," he says, "my results, achieved independently of Dr. Jonas, show that the earth's magnetism influences chromosomes and in this way even the smallest particles in the body."

Are Jonas and Rechnitz correct in assuming that there are two fertility cycles per month? Certainly, there is a lot of evidence that ovulation and conception frequently occur outside the regular monthly ovulation cycle. Extensive studies of the efficacy of the rhythm method have demonstrated this. Large-scale surveys of couples using rhythm who scrupulously avoided the ovulation cycle of fertility showed as many as 30 pregnancies per 100 women per year.

During World War II, Rechnitz adds, when the time of furlough of the husband could be controlled, it was found that conception occurred at any time of the month, not just during the wife's regular ovulation cycle. "The time of conception is thus not bound by the Knaus-Ogino hypothesis, as the latter assumes only a regular, spontaneous separation of the ovum," Rechnitz asserts. He also cites research on artificial insemination during the Korean war as showing that only 15 percent of the time was pregnancy achieved on the regular ovulation cycle....