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Time to Stand up!

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We have all been sharply chastened by our smart watches to stand up, get our bodies moving! What if there was an app to similarly step in and admonish us to stand up for ourselves!  For our rights, and other’s wrongs. For the road we want to take and not to be pushed! To simply stand up, and take charge, of our lives, decisions, step forwards! It would make so much of a difference to the dilemmas of the couple I see in my consulting room daily.  A couple dealing with fertility issues and all the baggage that comes with it ..Pushed by social obligation, societal pressures, burdened by what path the joint family feels is right for them to pursue. It’s a complex  mélange  of emotions, experiences, realisations and finally acceptance! Like a potpourri of every known feeling, and something that is on the table, whether you ordered it or not!! One would assume it would be best tackled with sensitivity, information gathering, and personal processing. But things are starkly different! This is
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Parenting to Adulting!

  This may sound a little off track, but do read on, it will make sense.  There has been a whole lot written about Britney Spears’ struggle with conservatorship. Something I had been ignorant about till the #FreeBritney gained momentum. As much as it shocks my sensibilities, the fact that a provision like this exists in the developed countries is a rude awakening about human rights. So when does a parent cease to be the authority, and pass the baton to the offspring ? Does it happen at the time a child becomes an adult? Is adulting a verb or a noun or both, in the vocabulary of us millennials? Is it an all or none transformation or do the boundaries blur somewhere down the line? Our Indian societal structure traditionally has been parent heavy, right till the child becomes a parent themselves and then some. However the change is afoot in every fibre of the mesh work that our society is, and ignoring that is only going to cause stitches to drop! Parents still have a control and say wher
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A conversation / A consultation!

Recently after a consultation concluded , the couple requested the nurse to come back  to my cabin for a quick word. They came in to convey that they had never had a  consultation like this with any Specialist /Gynecologist, and that they are thankful to me for summarising their diagnosis, and plan of action with so much of clarity!  I was taken aback! I graciously acknowledge their kind words and that it was my job to do so. However, it got me thinking     What do you expect when you meet your fertility expert? Grey hair, a crowded clinic, a 2 hour wait period, a prescription and an assurance/ echo of what’s your perception of your medical condition? If you do then most certainly you should not! And yes read along - for this is for you.  You would want a specialist who can sift through all your previous medical files, make a summary, come to a diagnosis and a tentative plan of treatment, and most importantly, convey all of that to you. Believe me it may not be all good. But if one wan
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Is twice as nice ?

Secondary infertility is inability to conceive or carry ahead the pregnancy again after a woman has once conceived earlier. There are broadly two type of couple here, one who already have a baby and fail to achieve a pregnancy second time around, and secondly, couple who conceive but the pregnancy does not carry forward for any medical reason. These couples suffer for a trauma and emotional stress not very well appreciated. Difficulty in conceiving a second child may come as a shock to the couple, particularly if no problems were experienced before. The reaction that some couples face “ be happy you have one” can be very depressing for a couple desperately trying for a child. The average incidence of secondary infertility is 20-30 percent of the general infertility population. The main causes for secondary infertility are similar to those of Primary infertility like tubal block, endometriosis, fibroid uterus, altered sperm parameters with the added burden of age and lifes
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Spoilt for choices ??

There was a subject called economics that we science students frowned upon religiously in college days. What could possibly be the attractions of a dry number driven complex topic for the pursuers of life and living beings and the forces that drive them, we asked! The answers came by, albeit a bit delayed, in the years of practise. For the health care is also driven by something we learnt as Demand and supply theory! Especially the optional treatment branches.  Fertility is such a branch, which is catering to healthy couple who are not suffering from a disease (infertility is yet listed as a condition and not as a disease) and is availed of as an optional, even boutique therapy. Only couple under the clutches of infertility realise what can be the devastating effects of the condition. Because is not an emergency or life threatening condition, usually couple have enough time and resources to choose the place of treatment. The question is, are our couples seeking fertility tr
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Frozen !!

Geoffrey Chaucer said "Time and tide wait for no man”. I would like to put an addendum with due respect to Chaucer, "Time, Tide and Biological Clock wait for no woman". Women mature with age, become more mellowed and beautiful and confidant after the twenties, but does her fertility follow this graph too? Sadly, no! Each month a bunch of eggs, start their journey towards ovulation. Only one best egg is selected and the rest are discarded by a natural selection.  By the age of 37 years there is a sharp decline in the egg reserve and the number steeply declines till the age of 40+ when there are but few good eggs left to come to the aid ofthat persistent sperm and make a living of their own!  Thanks to the advents of science, we now have a way forward with egg freezing or Ooocytecryopreservation as we call it.The American Society of Reproductive Medicine has removed the "experimental" label from oocyte cryopreservation in 2012 and it has been included in
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Life in a Metro.....The Good, Bad and the Ugly

We pace through the daily life in an unending rush, especially so in the metropolis. Like a coin, life in a big city has its pro's and con's. Do we stop to think about the effect on life and it's quality and more importantly, fertility and it's quality? lets do the exercise for a moment here! Lifestyle modifications go a long way in improving and improvising the way we live our days and also the number of days we live! The concept has to be drilled into us from the childhood because firstly the foundations built in young age decide how our future shapes up and secondly, because we as a species are in love with that which is easy! Our kids grow chubbier, our adults grow obese and our doctors grow busier! The wholesome effect of an unprocessed diet, hours in open air and away from the addictive screens cannot be overstressed. However, those who live in pigeonhole high rise apartments can but dream of those days which we have taken for granted in our childhood. We can
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