Within the framework of an interdisciplinary research project, ten functionally

sterile couples were subjected to a psychoanalytic investigation, including individual interviews, joint examinations, couple interviews, and consensus tests. These investigations substantiated the fact that such an examination should be undertaken prior to instituting organic treatment. The available material corroborates the hypothesis that functional sterility is the result of a secondary repression, mediated through the selection of a partner—that is, a somatization, a defensive symptom commonly sustained by the dyad.