HEALTH : Sterility

She was a young healthy woman who came from a nearby village with all features of severe depression. The depression worsened when her husband abandoned her in the hospital and went away. Later on we came to know that she has been married for 2 years and not produced a child so far. Thus this sterility was a problem confronting her married life as husband was planning to marry another woman. This story is not only of a village in Rwanda, but for majority of communities around the world whether rich or poor. Though the failure to produce a child can be with either husband or wife in the majority of cases it is the wife who is blamed for it. Thus sterility becomes not only a health related but a social problem. Sterility or infertility is the inability to conceive after unprotected intercourse for about a year. The underlying causes can be one or multiple factors but more than 50% cases are very well treatable. In other cases also, advanced techniques are available which help a couple to have their own child. Advancing age, is a risk factor for sterility in women. Fertility tends to decline after 30 years of age and is also less before about 16 years. Similarly in men also fertility decreases with age though a man remains fertile till a more advanced age. Smoking and alcoholism are known to increase risk of infertility in women as well as men. But women are more prone to develop harmful effects of these toxic substances including sterility. Ladies tend to take up these addictions under peer pressure or to show off that they are modern and liberated. Later on they regret when they desire to have a baby and fail to do so. Wearing very tight trousers, wearing nylon underpants, particularly in hot weather is known to diminish sperm production in men thus reducing sterility. Obesity and being underweight, both are modifiable factors which cause sterility in women. Endocrine diseases of the pituitary gland, thyroid or sex organs like ovaries or testes directly cause sterility. These diseases can be diagnosed easily and treated very well. Chronic infectious diseases like HIV or tuberculosis can impair the ovarian function or cause inflammation of the endometrium, resulting in sterility. But treatment of these conditions helps to improve the fertility of the affected individual. If a small boy suffers from mumps, he is at risk of developing inflammation of the testes, i.e. orchitis and may become sterile when he grows up. In women, inflammation of the fallopian tubes and resultant blockade is a common cause for infertility, which can be corrected by surgery. This can improve with timely treatment. Sexually transmitted diseases cause sterility in both men and women, by causing orchitis and salpingitis. Thus it is apparent that cause for sterility can be with both husband and wife and they need to be investigated for the same. However, usually, men refuse to be tested, putting the entire blame on the wife. Sometimes a couple may fail to conceive though there may be no apparent medical cause for the infertility. Wrong timing of coitus is one of the common reasons for it. Actually the time for ovulation in a woman’s monthly cycle is said to be the time when she is most likely to conceive. This is around the 14th to 21st day of the menstrual cycle, i.e. counting from day one of the menstrual period. If the couple desiring a baby abstain from sex for sometime and choose this time for being together, chances of conceiving are very high. Another cause can be that sometimes vaginal fluid is highly acidic and not conducive for the sperms to enter. This problem is corrected by alkaline douches. I had read an observation by Linda Goodman in one of her books that wild rabbits and hares have a high fertility rate because they consume a lot of carrots. This theory I passed on to a needy couple. They started taking carrots in good quantity regularly and in one year; the lady came to know that she is pregnant. Carrots contain vitamin E- which helps in improving fertility. Maybe others can also benefit from this theory. Apart from the medical treatment for conditions likely to impair fertility, there are advanced techniques to correct infertility like artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, e.t.c. In spite of all these measures, if one fails to get a baby in the house, the couple can go ahead with adoption. Try giving a home to some homeless orphan child. It will fulfill their desire for parenthood and change the entire life of the child. But infertility is absolutely no excuse for a man to abandon his wife. –rachna212002@yahoo.co.uk