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It’s hard to conceive!

Why are couples finding it difficult to have a child?

Career or child? Which comes first?

Vinitha and Dinakar are now seeking help to have a child. With both of them engrossed in their careers, they had deferred having a child for 12 years after marriage. A couple of years back, they finally decided they were ready to welcome a child into their world, but now, they are finding it hard to conceive. Their story might represent an extreme case scenario, but the truth is a growing percentage of couples today are having trouble conceiving a child.

“Over the last few years, we have been seeing a surge in the number of infertile couples seeking our help. The curious thing is, a large chunk of them is from the IT crowd,” says Dr. Kamala Selvaraj, obstetrician and gynaecologist. In fact, the records at her G.G. hospital reveal the percentage of infertile persons from the techie crowd has grown from 5.94 in 2004 to 7.33 in 2005 and 7.02 in 2006. Most infertility clinics would identify with this trend. Currently, at least 15 per cent of cases who are seeking assisted conception are from the IT sector, infertility specialists estimate. “Earlier about five per cent of the population was affected. Now, the figure is closer to 20 per cent,” says Dr. S. Samundi Sankari, obstetrician and gynaecologist, who has been researching on the subject.

The reasons for this are many. Stress, the high pressure atmosphere of the IT world, long working hours, working against the biological clock and adopting a nocturnal life pattern to deliver goods before clients in the West wake up, the junk food habit, obesity, lack of physical (pelvic exercise in particular) exercise and plain exhaustion. “The other factor is couples don’t get to spend time together, thanks to their contrasting schedules. They often miss the fertile period which falls between the 10th to the 16th day and peaks on the 14th day of a 28-day menstrual cycle, or 14 days before the onset of the woman’s next menstrual period, if the cycle length varies. Consequently, they lose out on the brightest possibility of conceiving a baby,” says Dr. Sankari.

Adds Dr. Selvaraj, “Being in a seated position for hours together, their reproductive organs literally feel the heat, so to say, which contributes to infertility.”

That is not to say that infertility strikes only the computer geeks. The problem strikes all those professionals living and working in the fast track, but IT professionals are particularly vulnerable to this. “Some of them also land into unplanned pregnancy and end up terminating it, which renders the women vulnerable to tubal blocks and other causes of infertility,” Dr. Sankari informs.

The other reason for infertility now striking so many is the smoking and drinking habit. “By the time they marry, smoking down the years would have lowered their sperm count, motility and morphology, rendering them infertile when they try to have a baby,” warns Dr. Sankari. A factor to be careful about is that pelvic tuberculosis that strikes young women and adolescent girls and renders them infertile is on the rise.

So what’s the advice from these medicos? Simple. Give priority to personal hygiene and physical exercise. Live by your biological clock, marry at the right age, avoid unplanned pregnancies, protect yourself from sexually transmitted diseases, and most important, don’t put off having your first baby. “I would even ask one of the couples to quit their jobs to facilitate childbirth and prioritise their lives,” says Dr. Selvaraj.

Ironically, infertility happens to be the single largest ‘factor’ affecting (some estimate it to be around 10-15 per cent) urban people in their peak years. The silver lining is any infertility problem can be solved, thanks to an array of assisted reproductive technologies that are now available, for a price and over agonising hours (sometimes, years) at the hospital. In fact, today you can even borrow a womb for your child. But does it make sense to build a career and break your heart?

HEMA VIJAY

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