I feel strongly that women - and men too - should have knowledge and a choice of treatments that can benefit."Life Medicine Clinic (020-8374 4566; ). Millions of doses of drugs to combat a future flu pandemic are to be stockpiled in the UK, the Government announced today. St John's wort is supposed to be just as good as, if not better than, Prozac for treating mild depression. It's available from health food shops and chemists, but does it interact with conventional drugs and small amounts of alcohol, and are there any dangers? Dr Fred Kavalier answers your health question: St John's wort is produced from a plant of the same name in the Hypericum family. It is not a licensed drug in the UK, but it is widely available as an over-the-counter treatment for depression.

It has been studied extensively and it does seem to have genuine antidepressant properties. But just because it is a natural plant remedy doesn't mean that it can't interact with other medicines. The British National Formulary lists 26 different drugs and groups of drugs that have an interaction with St John's wort. Many of these are interactions that probably won't make much difference, but a few are potentially important. If you are taking drugs for HIV infection, you must be particularly careful with St John's wort. There are quite a few anti-HIV drugs that are made less effective by the presence of St John's wort.

A drug called ciclosporin, used for people who have had kidney transplants, also interacts with St John's wort in a serious way. Some drugs that are used in epilepsy and migraine can be affected by St John's wort. Perhaps most important, St John's wort can have an effect on blood levels of the SSRI family of antidepressants, which includes Prozac and Seroxat Taking St John's wort with these is not recommended. "The first thing Jo did was to try to stimulate my left ovary using electro-acupuncture - tiny currents through the needles. That sounds a bit scary, but all you feel is a buzzing or tingling. And after several months, amazingly, my left-hand ovary did ovulate. I was having follicle tracking at a hospital, so they could tell me straight away."However, Mary decided to try IVF after all.

Mary Stewart was keen to start a family, but she'd had several ectopic pregnancies and her right-hand Fallopian tube had been removed Also, she was only ovulating from her right ovary. "Most women swap from side to side each month, but I've got a really lazy left ovary," she says. An article she'd read on acupuncture and infertility made her look on the internet for an alternative practitioner willing to work alongside conventional methods. That's how, two years ago, she found Jo George, who runs the Life Medicine Clinic in Crouch End in London. Jo uses acupuncture and Chinese medicine, with an emphasis on gynaecological health and conception."I went with an open mind, and I'm not afraid of needles," Mary says.

As with Phyllis Hulme, the maggots are in a "tea bag" of porous material, covered by a bandage "I didn't feel them moving around at all," she says. "I was a bit apprehensive, but now I'd d recommend the treatment to anybody. I can't understand why it's not more widely used."This might not be the hi-tech future of robot doctors and magic pills we were promised, but the time of maggots - and leeches, bees and worms - has come round again.To take part in the York study, call 0800 138 3461. What we need more of is practitioners and primary care trusts coming forward to take part.