The Road to Fertility

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

  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

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