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Molds are very small plants which nature uses as scavengers of the soil to convert dead leaves into fertilizer. They have no roots, stems, leaves, or chlorophyll, and they live as parasites because they nourish themselves from dead leaves, old shoes, walls of damp basements, old paper – almost anything except metal.

The mold plant is composed of threads that intertwine into a loose network on which grow the fruits of the plant, or its spores. When a spore lands on good soil, it sends some threads into the ground to form roots, while other threads grow upward and form a sort of a tree.

Molds live best at a temperature of 70° to 90 °F; they stop growing at 40°F. They are killed by high temperatures, but survive freezing for months.

Mold spores leave their mother-dwelling during the summer months and are scattered by winds and storms for miles around their locality. Each locality has its own brand of molds. It takes a special mold survey to determine the type of molds found in a particular place. This is done by exposing a plate, which contains mold food, to the open air for a number of minutes each day.

Here are the results of a survey made by Center Laboratories for the Port Washington area on Long Island, New York, regarding four common molds:

Alternaria. Out of 100 mold colonies grown in a culture plate, 80 contained alternaria (i.e., 80 percent). This is a mold which looks dirty gray and is found in decaying vegetation.

Horrnodendrum. Seventy-six percent. This mold on culture looks similar to alternaria. It is likewise found in decaying vegetation, as well as on dead tobacco leaves, tomatoes, or peaches.

Penicillium. Sixty-seven percent. This mold looks blue on culture. It is the common bread mold, as well as the factor in the ripening of the Camembert and Roquefort cheeses.

Aspergillus. Twenty-four percent. This is a black mold found on the walls of old, damp, and musty houses.

Mold allergy is a disorder which is similar in character to pollen allergy because molds do not have to attach themselves to an organ of the body to cause disease (fungi in feet cause disease, but not allergies); they simply have to be present in the air to do so.

Today there is a world increase in the number of people who are suffering from mold allergy. This is caused by two factors:

a.     The discovery of oil in the Middle East, which has caused a change in the kind of dwelling used in these countries (from open-air, tent-dwellings to air-conditioned skyscrapers which have cool and comfortable rooms, but which are not mold-free).

b.     The forceful displacement through war of millions of people who have been made to move from a dry desert area to a damp area near seashore where wind currents, climate, and vegetation are ideal for the growth of molds (Israel, Greece, India, etc.).

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Your egg is mixed together (not fertilised) with your partner’s sperm and put back into the fallopian tubes so that fertilisation takes place where it would happen naturally anyway.

Who Should Have It?

GIFT can only be used when a woman has open and healthy fallopian tubes.

What Happens?

The use of the drugs is identical to IVF but the difference is that the egg retrieval is done by a laparoscope (telescope) through the abdomen and so a general anesthetic is needed. A maximum of three eggs are put back in the fallopian tube.

The other difference between GIFT and IVF is that fertilisation, if successful, takes place inside the body. GIFT is more invasive and expensive than IVF.

Success Rate

There are no official success rates for GIFT treatment because it does not come under the HFEA which only monitors techniques involving an embryo outside the body.

One clinic estimates that GIFT is approximately one and a half times more successful than IVF because fertilisation takes place inside your fallopian tubes and the embryo does not reach the womb until approximately seven days later, as nature intended. (As we have seen, IVF fails most commonly at this crucial implantation stage.)

Frozen Eggs

Any excess eggs from a GIFT procedure can be fertilised with the sperm outside the body, as in IVF. This makes it possible to see whether fertilisation actually takes place, and the embryos can be frozen.

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• Start a new interest in life; take up a hobby; go to an evening class; do something that you have always wanted to do, and not necessarily with your partner. Examine your job and see if you could get more out of it or put more into it. If as a result of any of these things you become more interesting to yourself or your partner you are on the way to preventing sexual boredom.

• Try to be more spontaneous and, if necessary, get professional help to overcome any personality problems that are holding you back.

• Try something different. When did you last explore something new in your sexual relationship? You have probably, without consciously realizing it, settled for less than the best. But in the search for novelty don’t throw out or jeopardize your existing, if routine, pleasures. Our interest in new things has to be traded off against the security of the familiar and reliable. Too much hectic change is unsettling in sexual matters as elsewhere in life.

• Be yourself. Stop trying to be something your partner wants-exert your own needs and desires. Don’t hide your feelings – it’s sexier to reveal them to your lover. You need to be selfish at least to some extent if you are to prevent boredom. Unfortunately, we are brought up to be reticent about what we would most like and often settle for far less.

• Share your fantasies. The most important sex organ is the mind! Be wary, though, about what and how you share. Be sensitive to your partner, especially if your fantasies involve someone of the opposite sex whom he or she knows. Many women especially fear that today’s fantasy could become tomorrow’s fact-though this rarely occurs.

• Go for the best at all times. Get away from stereotypes and make your love-making unique to you as a couple. This is true romance. It also makes it less likely that either of you will look outside for sexual pleasures -if only because the chances are that you will be getting more fulfilling sex at home.

• Talk to each other about what is important to you-and not just regarding sex. Make time to share what really matters to each of you in life. As you explore each other more you will become genuinely more interested and interesting and will find sex less boring too.

• Improve your surroundings. Make your bedroom cosier and sexier. Perhaps get a TV or video for the bedroom. Ensure that the room can be warmed up quickly. Get some erotic literature, perhaps some sex toys, and so on.

• Forget about being ‘in the mood’. Many people, women especially, believe that unless they feel ‘romantic’ they shouldn’t have sex. This in itself leads to mounting boredom because there is no one mood in which enjoyable sex can or should take place. Try having sex when you are bored, miserable, angry, sad or quiet as well as when you feel happy or ’sexy’. This produces new emotions and can be a real eye-opener.

• Stop having sex for a while if it is boring you. Go back to courtship behaviour. Learn to enjoy each other in ways that don’t end in intercourse. Once you have increased your repertoire in this way you will return to sex with a new vigour and certainly be less bored!

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• Start a new interest in life; take up a hobby; go to an evening class; do something that you have always wanted to do, and not necessarily with your partner. Examine your job and see if you could get more out of it or put more into it. If as a result of any of these things you become more interesting to yourself or your partner you are on the way to preventing sexual boredom.

• Try to be more spontaneous and, if necessary, get professional help to overcome any personality problems that are holding you back.

• Try something different. When did you last explore something new in your sexual relationship? You have probably, without consciously realizing it, settled for less than the best. But in the search for novelty don’t throw out or jeopardize your existing, if routine, pleasures. Our interest in new things has to be traded off against the security of the familiar and reliable. Too much hectic change is unsettling in sexual matters as elsewhere in life.

• Be yourself. Stop trying to be something your partner wants-exert your own needs and desires. Don’t hide your feelings – it’s sexier to reveal them to your lover. You need to be selfish at least to some extent if you are to prevent boredom. Unfortunately, we are brought up to be reticent about what we would most like and often settle for far less.

• Share your fantasies. The most important sex organ is the mind! Be wary, though, about what and how you share. Be sensitive to your partner, especially if your fantasies involve someone of the opposite sex whom he or she knows. Many women especially fear that today’s fantasy could become tomorrow’s fact-though this rarely occurs.

• Go for the best at all times. Get away from stereotypes and make your love-making unique to you as a couple. This is true romance. It also makes it less likely that either of you will look outside for sexual pleasures -if only because the chances are that you will be getting more fulfilling sex at home.

• Talk to each other about what is important to you-and not just regarding sex. Make time to share what really matters to each of you in life. As you explore each other more you will become genuinely more interested and interesting and will find sex less boring too.

• Improve your surroundings. Make your bedroom cosier and sexier. Perhaps get a TV or video for the bedroom. Ensure that the room can be warmed up quickly. Get some erotic literature, perhaps some sex toys, and so on.

• Forget about being ‘in the mood’. Many people, women especially, believe that unless they feel ‘romantic’ they shouldn’t have sex. This in itself leads to mounting boredom because there is no one mood in which enjoyable sex can or should take place. Try having sex when you are bored, miserable, angry, sad or quiet as well as when you feel happy or ’sexy’. This produces new emotions and can be a real eye-opener.

• Stop having sex for a while if it is boring you. Go back to courtship behaviour. Learn to enjoy each other in ways that don’t end in intercourse. Once you have increased your repertoire in this way you will return to sex with a new vigour and certainly be less bored!

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Isolation

‘I feel so alone. I have never heard of this disease and most of my family and friends don’t even know how to pronounce it let alone understand what it means. How can I explain it to them in simple terms when I don’t understand it myself?’

This is a common cry for help. Many women find it difficult to discuss their gynecological problems with family or friends because they are embarrassed or simply do not want to burden people with their problems.

Some may find that they feel isolated because partners or family and friends have heard about the symptoms for so long that they no longer want to discuss it now that a diagnosis has been made.

Others believe that once the woman has had surgery such as a laparoscopy or laparotomy she is cured and should have no more problems. Little do they realize that this may be just the beginning.

Anger

Most women with endometriosis have felt anger at some stage. It may happen after you overcome the initial confusion and feelings of isolation because then you start asking yourself: ‘Why me?’, ‘Why am I infertile?’, ‘Why didn’t doctors pick this up sooner?’, ‘Why isn’t there a cure?’, ‘What research is being undertaken?’, ‘Why isn’t more information available about this disease?’

With all these questions racing through your mind it is difficult to realize that you have not been singled out to suffer. You will feel angry that at some stage this disease may interrupt your life or that it may prevent you from having children, or attaining other goals in your life or pursuing some sporting interest or hobby.

You may also feel angry because endometriosis is a chronic disease for which there is no ‘cure’. You may be angry because a diagnosis has taken so long, because doctors do not have all the answers and it seems that no-one understands your turmoil.

Your partner too may be confused and frustrated by the disruption the disease has caused to your lives. He may feel angry that there is no cure, or may find it difficult because you may need his constant support.

How do you cope with this anger and frustration that you both may feel?

Try to include your partner in talks about the disease. Encourage him to accompany you on visits to the doctor or to meetings of support groups.

Let your partner talk about his fears and concerns and include him in any decision making.

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Kitchen

• Have cupboards that can be reached easily without having to stand on chairs or steps.

• Turn saucepans on cookers so that the handles don’t stick out.

• Keep poisons, cleaning fluids and disinfectants high up and preferably locked away.

• Don’t prise open cans with fingers.

• Never leave fat heating in a pan on the cooker unattended.

• Wipe up spills at once.

• Don’t polish floors highly.

• Put all sharp things in drawers.

• Check the safety of plugs and wiring on domestic equipment.

• Don’t overload electric sockets.

• Use a brush and dustpan to sweep up broken glass or china.

• Have a fire extinguisher or fire blanket handy and know how to use it.

• Never put water on a fat fire-put a lid on the pan or cover it with a fire blanket.

• Teach children to respect kitchen machinery.

• Have a first-aid kit handy

• Never leave a flex from an electric kettle overhanging the edge of a work surface.

Bathroom

• Keep all drugs and medicines out of children’s reach, preferably in a special cupboard that

locks. Place the medicine cupboard high on the wall so that children can’t reach it.

• Flush all old medicines and those without labels down the lavatory.

• Ask the Gas Board to service the water heater yearly.

• Choose non-slip flooring.

• Have a non-slip backing to the bathroom mat.

• Use a non-slip mat in the bath for the young and old.

• Run cold water before hot when filling the bath.

• Ban portable, mains-operated electrical appliances from the bathroom.

• The heater should be high up on the wall or ceiling but not over the bath.

• Have a pull cord for the light switch.

• Have a proper razor socket only -no other power outlets.

• Keep razors well out of children’s reach.

• Never block ventilation holes if you have a gas water heater in the bathroom.

• Never leave children alone in the bath.

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