The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : No kidding, stress is taking its toll on DINKs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

No kidding, stress is taking its toll on DINKs

Sahana Charan

The IT city’s fast-paced lifestyle is leaving its mark. Many couples who decide to have children often discover they cannot

In India the incidence of infertility is between 10 and 20 per cent
It has lately become more of a lifestyle problem than a medical problem

Affecting health: Stress, long working hours, night shifts and other factors may result in decreased fertility among young people.

Bangalore: An enviable bank balance, a dizzying career growth at a young age and breakfast at Seattle and dinner at San Jose. The high-earning two-income professional couple in Bangalore may be the envy of a digitally deprived populace, but their fast-paced and stressful life may be taking a toll on their health, especially sexual health.

No wonder that doctors and specialists in reproductive health are reporting an increased number of young couples in the city who are coming to them for advice on infertility problems.

In any population, the incidence of infertility is around 15 per cent. According to studies conducted, in India the incidence is between 10 to 20 per cent.

“The reasons for infertility may be various. In Bangalore, a large number of couples who seek advice for problems in conceiving are professionals with high-stress jobs. Working long hours, night shifts, frequent travel, stress at the workplace and advancing age affect a couple’s sexual life. This in addition to certain medical problems may result in decreased fertility,” Padmini Prasad, gynaecologist and Director of Institute of Sexual Medicine, told The Hindu. Lifestyle problem

According to Dr. Prasad, the inability to have children had lately become more of a lifestyle problem than a medical problem. Among most of the young couples these days, the erratic lifestyle they lead does not leave them much time to spend with each other. “Some of them are so busy travelling that they do not get quality time. I have had clients where the husband has offered to store his semen in a semen bank so that it can be injected into his wife when she ovulates, as he is not around during that time,” she said.

She also found that at least 20 to 30 per cent of the couples who come to her for advice not having consummated their marriage. “Sometimes we find that the problem is not purely because of infertility. The couple is either too busy to spend intimate time together or the marriage would not have been consummated due to lack of awareness or other factors,” Dr. Prasad revealed.

The Institute of Sexual Medicine, Bangalore, conducted a study few years ago to identify the incidence and types of sexual and reproductive problems among IT professional couples in the city who form a major chunk of those seeking help from the institute for infertility problems. The study came out with some startling revelations: of the 900 patients examined between April 2005 and May 2006, 180 had not consummated their marriage; 300 had infertility problems such as low sperm count, problems in the vagina and the hymen, and defects in the fallopian tube or the uterus; 200 suffered from erectile dysfunction or ejaculatory problems; 100 had dyspareunia (pain during intercourse) while 99 had decreased libido (sexual anorexia).

“Stress is one of the main factors that affects the sexual performance of couples these days. They are so busy pursuing their careers they do not realise that their biological clock is ticking. When they finally decide to have a family, their body is not young anymore. Moreover, they have no patience and think that everything can be done in a hurry,” pointed out Kamini Rao, infertility expert and Medical Director of Bangalore Assisted Conception Centre. Stress may be responsible for disturbed hormonal patterns, obesity, irregular menstrual periods and decreased libido, all leading to infertility problems. “In our centre, one in three couples who came for advice for problems related to conceiving are from the IT sector and most are in the 25 to 35 age group,” Dr. Rao said.

Blame the genes

Genetic factors may also play a major role in infertility in both sexes, accounting for almost 30 per cent of the problems seen in clinical practice. They also contribute to pregnancy wastage, congenital disorders and foetal malformations.

Contradictory to popular belief, the woman is definitely not the sole cause for inability to have an offspring. It has been established through studies that while 40 per cent of men are responsible for infertility, women make up for 40 per cent of the causes for not having a child. In 10 per cent of the cases, both may be equally responsible while 10 per cent may be attributed to unexplained factors.

Saraswathi Srinath, a consultant gynaecologist and former president of Sudatta — Adoptive Parents Network, pointed out that the trend was changing now and the woman was no longer blamed for not bearing a child. “But couples who realise they cannot have children of their own go through immense psychological stress because of the pressure from various quarters. Many of them socialise less because they may find themselves in awkward situation when other couples talk about their children,” Dr. Saraswathi said.

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