The Sexual Male: Problems and Solutions. By Richard Milsten and Julian Slowinski. New York: W.W. Norton & Company 1999. 331 pages, bibliog., refs., index. Hardback, ISBN 0-393-04740-7, $25.95.

Abstract

[W]e bleed to rid the uterus of potentially dangerous pathogens that might have hitched a ride inside on the backs of sperm. Think of it. The uterus is a luxurious city just waiting to be sacked, and sperm are the ideal Trojan horse. Bacteria, etc. .. , can find passage to the womb by playing opportunistic gene jockey, and so it happens that scanning electron micrographs of sperm reveal a cartoonish mob scene, the tadpole cell at the center surrounded by a cluster of microbial hangers on. If permitted to linger in the uterus indefinitely, the pathogens might run amok, sickening, scarring or killing us. Our endometrium must die, Profet has proposed, so that we might live.