It takes ovaries: Gen W fights back health horrors

Equipped with new treatment and a mutant gritty gene, the new woman takes on obesity to twisted pregnancies.

Delayed marriages, obesity, ovarian cysts-that’s darkly the postmodern Mumbai woman for you. Much of it, of course, is a function of her urban existence. Doctors say there has been a rise in such infertility alarms in the last five years.

They chiefly blame stress and a footloose diet. Delayed marriages and childbirths too have doubled in the five years, says infertility specialist Nandita Palshetkar. She is face of the new doctor, wearing coloured lenses to her clinic, sporting streaked hair and dealing with problems that our mothers and grandmothers had not cautioned us about.

If the men are down with increasing semen disorders, women are reporting more cases of polycystic ovaries, which obstruct ovulation and endrometriosis-a deposition on the uterine lining outside the uterus which makes pregnancy a little more difficult.

Consultant gynaecologist with Jaslok Hospital Anahita Pandole says these problems are being noticed in younger women more than ever before. “These can only increase as women are working harder and not concentrating on their diet,” she says. Doctors talk of a rise in other health concerns like abdominal pain, irregular periods, anaemia, infection and even hirsutism, or excessive body hair.

“There is a virtual epidemic of polycystic ovaries but the good news is that it is often related to obesity and hence easily treated with a mere weight loss,” says Dr Palshetkar. Uterine tumours and fibroids too are on the rise, as are abortions, thanks to their greater acceptance in society.

Most of these problems have to do with lifestyle, says gynaecologist Rishma Pai, who often ends up playing psychologist to her distressed patients. “The fast pace and high stress levels can be killing, especially for middle-aged women, who come to me depressed and complain of inconsiderate husbands and troublesome children,’’ she says.

It is not all bleak though. If the doctors expect these postmodern problems to spiral in the coming years, they also expect them to run headlong into better medication and technology.

Good treatment options are available such as sperm washing, which can take care of low sperm count. There is laser-hatching, spindleview systems that are not yet proven to address chromosomal abnormality, and even air-handling systems that improve air quality in an infertility laboratory.

And then of course there is the morning-after pill which aborts an unwanted embryo 75 times out of 100 without any invasive procedure.

And while modern lifestyles have spawned a host of illnesses, they have also brought about a greater awareness. “More women go for regular health checks, are more open to counseling, and acknowledge a mental problem when they seen one,’’ says Dr Pai.