This evening I met someone who teaches medical clowning. My eyebrows shot up too. But Shevach Friedler and his friend (the clown) teach other clowns how to cheer up ill people.

And this is relevant to reproduction because…? Because he presented a study showing that 15 minutes spent with a medical clown after an IVF cycle bumps the pregnancy rate from 20% to 36%. Which must be about the same as knocking a few years off a woman’s age.

Obviously I asked what the clown does. (I was hoping for a video presentation and a quick fertility boost, but no luck.) Friedler said it took three months to find the best routine. Red-nose clowning didn’t do the job for young, infertile women. So the clown dresses like a chef, does magic tricks and makes jokes, presumably the kind that young, infertile women find funny. I’m still struggling to think of examples.

Supposedly the clown reduces the stress that afflicts women undergoing IVF, or somehow tickles those embryos into staying put.

This evening I met someone who teaches medical clowning. My eyebrows shot up too. But Shevach Friedler and his friend (the clown) teach other clowns how to cheer up ill people.

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