CHENNAI: The fifth edition of the international conference on recent advances in clinical practice in obstetrics, sub-fertility and gynaecology will be held at the Madras Medical Mission from Friday. The three-day meet will discuss medico-legal and ethical issues involving surgeries and procedures on women with urogynaecological and gynaecological problems.

Thankam R. Varma, head of the Institute of Reproductive Medicine and Women's Health at the hospital, says in India one couple in five is childless. Sixty per cent of infertility problems come from men, who suffer from work-related stress she says. Lifestyle changes such as smoking and drinking and casual relationship-induced infection are also major reasons for reduced sperm production.

Policing, followed by defence and the software industry, are the most stressful jobs, she says. "[Despite] these problems men can still father a child," Dr. Varma says.

To some extent these are applicable to women also, besides defective ovulation and other pelvic problems.

While in the West most women opt for caesarean section for reasons of convenience, in India, it is the family that decides the time of childbirth. Nine of 10 women coming to her unit want the child delivered during the `auspicious time' making the doctor opt for a caesarean.

At the conference, Dov Feldberg, chairman of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department at Rabin Medical Centre in Israel, will speak on the need for an education centre at hospitals to educate women on healthcare.

He calls for promoting the "concept of bonding mothers and daughters in terms of health" as throughout their life, a mother and daughter form a bond.

This will ensure that women are educated on the preventive healthcare aspects for quality life as she grows up.

Issac Manyonda, a consultant at St. George's Health Care NHS Trust in the United Kingdom, will discuss his experiences.

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