It's Hard To Get Pregnant In Your 30's! @maitriwomanhealth | shobha rana | TJW #86

It's Hard To Get Pregnant In Your 30's! @maitriwomanhealth | shobha rana | TJW #86

Author Name:Shobha Rana

Youtube Channel Url:https://www.youtube.com/@iamshobharana

Youtube Video URL:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvBye0huicM



Transcript:
(00:00) there's a very disturbing phenomena which we as doctors are seeing these days that women are losing their eggs faster today we are seeing women as young as 35 going into menopause this is known as premature menopause women are now advised to freeze their eggs every woman is born with fixed number of eggs you know this is known as Wen Reserve medically the best age to get pregnant is early 20s I always tell this to people that sex always comes with responsibility towards your own self the physical responsibility the mental
(00:34) responsibility and the emotional responsibility what are the risks of having multiple partners casual partners for sex you can get pregnant you could get sexually transmitted infections some of the SDI are like which cannot be treated forever which means they never leave you things like HIV things like hepatitis things like herps things like HPV will be there with you forever we don't go to a doctor so that we don't don't fall ill we go to a doctor when we have fallen ill very badly India accounts for 1/4 cases of cervical
(01:07) cancer the easiest thing to detect cervical cancer is a papsmear now in countries like us and UK the papsmear weights are maybe 97 to 98% now in a Metro City like gurgo the pmia weights are maybe 7 to 8% only there's also a lot of curiosity around having sex during a woman's period please help me understand this in detail uh welcome to the journey within podcast with me sharana this podcast is designed with an aim to help you discover yourself better know things about yourself better and make a meaningful transformation and shift in your life we
(01:47) go through the personal growth journeys of Our Guest the life lessons that they have lived the experiences and the insights that they have to share that can help us to take our journey within connect with our inner self better where we process our thoughts feelings emotions and life events once this processing becomes powerful our perspective about our lives become powerful and when our perspective about our lives is powerful then of course we take better decisions we have better clarity about our life and we experience
(02:14) a better quality of our life on this podcast we talk about our overall well-being our sexual wellness and reproductive health is a very important pillar of our overall well-being in this episode we have tried to decode exactly that in depth so that you gain a lot of knowledge on your own body you understand your body deeply in this episode we have discussed periods PCOS pcod pregnancy various myths and facts about reproductive Health not just for women but also for men so please to watch this episode till the end a lot of
(02:47) wonderful insights are waiting you in this episode today I have with me Dr anjeli Kumar who is a gynecologist and also a senior endoscopic surgeon she's director for OBS and gy at the CK Bera hospital she also runs a digital platform called med3 that uh helps people with the scientific evidence-backed information on women's health she has an experience of over 35 years in this vast space let's meet Dr aneli Kumar on the journey within [Music] podcast hi Dr Kumar I'm really excited to have this conversation with you you
(03:29) have a tall exper expence of 35 years of helping women conceive and with their pregnancy the whole whole thing so we will get into that but I want to start with the first thing first um you know I want to start this conversation with talking about sex which is um almost a taboo although things are slowly changing people are now getting a little more open about it than before I remember when I was growing up it was such a taboo that we never had the talk from our parents you know and it is leading to a lot of uninformed um
(03:59) uninformed and unprotected sex that uh young adults are having so um first up I would want to ask that what is the right way that parents can have this talk with their uh kids okay so first of all thank you very much for inviting me uh from journey within podcast and I've seen many of your episodes and they're really good thank you very much um yes you rightly said um I mean today we are in an era where we we need to talk about these and we need to talk about all these issues without any judgment without any bias without any fear
(04:39) without any shame without any guilt from every side from the person from the parents from the teachers from the society it's high time that we develop that responsible attitude about this whole word called sex so the sex education there is no particular age okay it doesn't work like this so as parents first of all we don't have to have that guilt and shame around sex only then we will be able to talk about this in a very open manner with our children and as parents we don't have to miss even a single opportunity you know
(05:23) whether if there is a very innocent or a na question let's say from a fouryear old or 5year old asking the parents mama how does a baby comes out I mean that also an is an opportunity which should not be missed and why should we you know feel guilty about it so I always feel that every opportunity every question by a young child is an opportunity and U we should never miss that what should the parents really say to such a young child because that's the Dilemma that a lot of parents are facing that they want to kind of conceal uh
(05:59) information about sex or they want to kind of limit the kind of Television kids are watching and all of that but when they're asking these questions out of their curiosity parents are often confused to what should I say what is right I tell you a very interesting um uh you know episode which was when my daughter uh she was U probably 5 years old so she was uh very intently watching a pigeon who had just laid eggs and she very asked me Mama because she knew that I had a C section and she came out through a cut
(06:39) on the Mama's tummy and I could have easily dodged that question and I told her uh all of us have a natural hole in the body through which the babies come out and in case for some reason you know the babies are not come out through that hole then the doctors do a cant section to take the baby out so in this case the B the egg came out through that hole and she was satisfied but I could have easily Dodge that question so we need to be little creative and you know at the same time very open and making the child feel that
(07:16) her question is absolutely genuine and you know there is no right or wrong in it as a parent we need to be having our own creative creativity in that but never ever Dodge that question so not invalid ating the Curiosity or the feelings that a young child or a young adult has about sex I think that is one very major takeaway that uh we need to take it's it's not even like that uh you know we uh can wait for these conversations to happen the times have evolved so fast and uh these days very very young adults are engaging into sex
(07:53) and since they come very uninformed it leads to unprotected sex as well what are the dangers of unprotected sex in young adults absolutely dangerous and the soall new trend of casual sex is even more dangerous you know it's like you meet someone random have a casual sex which may be unprotected many times absolutely not a great idea uh you know I always tell this to people that sex always comes with responsibility towards your own self the physical responsibility the mental responsibility and the emotional responsibility which means that if you
(08:34) engage in sex you need to understand first that I can get pregnant I can get STI you know there could be an emotional trauma in case we fall apart out of a relationship so in case you feel that you are ready to handle the physical part the mental part and the emotional part of that post sex uh you know after month or experience whatever you say and it's absolutely okay there is nothing wrong with sex there is nothing wrong with premarital sex also provided you have taken that uh decision rationally and with lot of responsibility at least in
(09:19) your head so when people come and tell me oh I did not know that I could get pregnant I said then why did you start it I mean it's your respon it's it's it's you know your responsibility towards your own self which is your body and mind that you educate yourself first and then get into it there's nothing wrong with it absolutely provided you prepare yourself for it Dr Kumar you talked about casual sex and these days casual sex is becoming more and more prevalent these days um people have multiple partners so I want to ask two
(09:53) questions here a what are the risks of having multiple partners casual partners for sex and uh B um what should we be aware of uh before engaging into sex with random casual people so number one of course you can get pregnant secondly you could get sexually transmitted infection and when I talk about sexually transmitted infections you need to understand some of the SD could be very very easy to treat while some of the SDI are like which cannot be treated forever which means they never leave you things like HIV things like hepatitis things
(10:32) like herpes things like HPV will be there with you forever so you need to really weigh the pros and cons of it is it really worth getting into it and if you still think that it's okay you should be very very sure of your partner and your partner's sexual history also so what is your sexual history tree that's why I said you know casual sex when you don't even talk to a person just hop into it without knowing that person seual so that is why it's a very very um dangerous thing I mean for the scars
(11:18) which you might get which could be the physical you know uh scars of it they could be very difficult to manage yeah you know as an emotional intelligence coach I had had uh one client who came to me this girl was 26 years old and she just went through the breakup with her partner and uh with whom she had a pregnancy 3 4 years back into their relationship and they decided to abort the kid and all of that and now after 3 4 years they parted ways now this woman had so many scars from that experience she was like I have not told
(11:55) my parents about this nobody in my family knows no none of my friends know I'm living with such a big secret I don't know who to share it with and I don't know if I'm ready to get married because my parents are now asking me to find a suitable match for myself and all of that but I don't know how do I live with this guilt the shame of going through abortion and for the person I did all of this with he's also no longer in my life yeah so all of these conditions so that's why I said you need to ask yourself that question am I
(12:26) physically ready am I mentally ready am I emot Al ready to face you know the experience and the aftermath of that experience only then you should get into it Dr Kumar uh there is uh information about unprotected sex uh platforms like me or platform and other platforms are educating people about it yet there is a sense of excitement in uh particularly in men to have unprotected sex why is it so so excitement is something and Sanity is something we should always listen to the sanity in the mind so even if there's an excitement on
(13:05) the male side you need to have your sanity intact and ask them to use a barer method of contraception there is no way about it absolutely no way about it you should not use a barrier method of contraception which is a condom female or a male condom unless and until you're planning a pregnancy otherwise you should always use a condom always and to ask your partner to use a condom so this is remember this is your right there is something known as a sexual consent so it's important that you know what are your rights you can always ask
(13:43) your partner like you know they said in that movie pink movie no means no no means no and it's your right to ask your partner what feels right for you what kind of contraception contraception always it's your right and unless and until you exercise your right the other person is likely to take you for a ride doct Kumar who is more susceptible to have sexually transmitted diseases a man or a woman both so men also will not be spared in case they are not careful so when I said sexual history of a partner it applies
(14:22) to both when I said the physical and mental and emotional trauma it applies to men also but yes there are certain things which happen only in a woman like only a woman can get pregnant but SDI can happen to both we are living in times where uh people are getting married late they're planning pregnancy late uh late 30s or even 40s so what are the probable risks there uh involved so let's um sha started like this what is the right age to get pregnant you know then we can talk about how late is late so medically you know you would laugh at
(15:01) at it probably the best age to get pregnant is early 20s so the way human body is designed you know we were supposed to get pregnant early that's where the chances of getting pregnant are easy the pregnancy is easiest uh the complications are less but as the age advances the fertility rates decline so now when we go to the late age pregnancy the biggest problem which happens is that your chances of getting pregnant spontaneously dramatically decrease dramatically then of course uh when you're a little older the chances of
(15:40) miscarriages abortions complications in pregnancy like diabetes hypertension chances of C-section all that increases chances of birth defects in children also increase when a woman is on a higher age braacket but it doesn't I don't mean to say that every woman should get pregnant when she's in early 20s I mean today I'm a professional woman myself uh but we need to understand that there is a biological limitation to the body so the best Stage to get pregnant is when you are ready for it you know physically careerwise financially and
(16:19) when you found the right partner but in case you feel that all that is not happening and you're planning to postpone your pregnancy to late in age then you must must visit a doctor to understand that how healthy you are nowadays we do a test call uh amh it's a test to find out your AAR and Reserve to find out if your eggs are still good enough so that you can take the right decisions and you have lot of things nowadays to help women like egg freezing and all those things so in case you feel that you want to delay your pregnancy
(16:54) please do visit a doctor women are now advised to freeze their eggs freezing eggs is a conversation that is making some rounds in the last decade or so more because like you said women are now opting out for getting married or settled uh for the lack of a better word at the later um part in their life maybe in the late 30s or 40s and things like that so this is a common advice that is coming about eggs uh freezing what is the right age for one to freeze their eggs so let's start with the basic what is egg freezing so we need to understand
(17:26) that every woman is born with fixed number of eggs you know this is known as Wen Reserve when a girl child is born she has fixed number of eggs after that the egg number cannot increase it can only decrease month by month the eggs they come down that's why the age for menopause varies from one person to another person when the ex finish a woman goes into menopause so that's why somebody could have a menopause at 40 45 55 or whatever so in case there is a woman who's wanting to postpone the pregnancy now she has an option of
(18:05) freezing their eggs so which means that we take out those eggs from a woman's body and we can freeze them indefinitely it's actually till Infinity it can be done and we have such wonderful Technologies today that it can be kept Frozen for indefinitely actually nothing happens to the egg no quality deteriorates or something like that nothing nothing so the science says that uh there are no increased chances of complications in pregnancy or any birth defects in the children using frozen eggs you ask me what is the best age for
(18:42) egg freezing earlier the better which means even in early 20 so if you think that I'm 25 and I don't plan to get married till 35 visit the doctor because that's the time the doctor can the doctor is likely to get better number and the better quality of the eggs so so uh also a little bit about the this is known as a social egg phasing which means that because of your uh social reasons which is delay in career or academics or not finding a partner you are delaying and freezing delaying the pregnancy and freezing your eggs there's
(19:17) something known as a medical egg freezing also where there's a woman who's been diagnosed with some serious condition like cancer now before doing a surgery or before starting a chemotherapy we first save her eggs because post chemotherapy her ovaries will be sort of permanently damaged uh but yes of course for the right reasons uh social egg freezing is now gaining more attention which in my opinion also is is a good thing so how much does it cost to freeze the eggs let's say for a year it varies from um there are a lot
(19:51) of factors which control this number one is the age of a woman you know what is your what is her oen Reserve so a young younger woman would require lesser medicines to stimulate the OVI and get a better number of eggs while an older woman would require more number of Cycles more amount of medications so the cost becomes more as the age becomes more and of course it weighs from Center to Center but on an average it could cost anything between roughly about maybe uh one to one and a half lakh per cycle like I said uh an average woman
(20:29) might require about two to three Cycles to get a decent number of eggs and after that there is a per year cost it's like a wal in which you keep your you know stuff there so uh it could cost maybe 10 to 15,000 rupees per year that is what it is 10 to 15,000 rupees a year a yearing cost wow and the onetime cost or two to three Cycles if it takes that is uh 1.5 1 to 1.
(20:57) 5 I'm just trying to also help my viewers with the math of it so that they can also plan their finances accordingly you know because uh nowadays A lot of my friends including myself uh we are also a confused generation you know so to speak uh sometimes you lack clarity about especially being pregnant so many conversations doing rounds about uh you know exercising your child or your right to not be pregnant or um you know um seeing other women and comparing yourself continuously to them that uh people you see in senior higher positions they have had either their
(21:34) kids very early on or they are just doing very well in their careers there are various factors social factors also those are leading for for sparking insecurities in women particularly about pregnancy so we need to understand you know our career aspirations and our biological clock they are in two different directions right right so uh once we understand the biological limitation of the body and then we can take the right actions and like I said I'm a professional woman myself you know I would never tell a woman okay you know
(22:11) your job is just to have a you know a family or just to raise children you need to understand whether you are ready to have a child or not absolutely okay whether you want to have a family not have a family how many number of children you want it's your life your decision and you should be proud of whatever decision you have taken but in case you're thinking that I want to postpone it little later equip yourself with a better knowledge and the means to protect your eggs because fixed number eggs so and also it's very very
(22:46) important um for us to learn to protect our eggs now there's a very disturbing phenomena which we as doctors are seeing these days that women are losing their eggs faster today we are seeing women as young as 35 going into menopause this is known as premature menopause so probably you know the bad Lifestyles smoking alcohol drugs lot of environmental toxins you know on which we practically have no control on like uh herbicides pesticides in food lot of stress and worry so make sure that in case you're waiting till a later time you know you
(23:25) take care of yourself which means that you're free from disease your conscious ly working on stress you eating clean you keeping yourself happy exercising keeping your weight under control so what I'm trying to ask is that women's mental health uh does that also impact the egg count or the menopause that they are going to have not really directly but yes we need to understand a woman's mental health has a lot of bearing on her reproductive health so all our reproductive hormones they start from the brain there's a gland called
(24:02) hypothalamus from hypothalamus certain hormones are released they go to pitutary that's the master gland from pitutary certain hormones are released now they act on the ovary from ovary certain hormones are released which act on the uterus to finally cause the PS so this is known as hpo axis medically hypothalamic pitutary o and axis this a little technical you can forget about it but the point which I want to make is so stress is one of the biggest reasons for irregular periods missing periods it's the reason for uh premenstrual
(24:39) syndrome it's a reason for the um lot of problems you know stress is known to cause infertility also the stress is known to cause uh you know difficulty to conceive so keep stress at Bay stress can also impact the quality of the fetus or not really directly the quality of the fetus is a very big term you know the quality of the fetus is dependent upon not just your egg it is also dependent upon the husband's the sperm also and of course uh you know your medical history alcoholism smoking whether you are diabetic or hypertensive
(25:19) whether you've been taking your supplements like folic acid so health of fetus is a very broad term uh but yes stress is something which is bad for a woman Dr Kumar please help uh our viewers understand what a fetus is because I'm sure most of the people watching would not know it okay so fetus is the baby inside I mean there are various definitions you know we have a zygote and embryo and then fetus but for a very simple reason fetus is the baby inside right so we were discussing about the health of the fetus which is the
(25:52) baby's health and how stress impacts it not just of the mothers or the fathers both of so nowadays we are we have lot of uh interesting studies which talk about how Mother's emotional uh self can affect the baby's personality later on so it's a very it's a new evolving um field wherein we have now enough evidence if the mother is stressed worried and anxious in her pregnancy she's likely to give birth to a person who is likely to be anxious stressed and worried even a later wow you know um in our ancient uh wisdom
(26:36) there is something called garas sansar exactly which is a mother's what is she carrying within herself not just physically but also in our emotional body and the mental body so today we know as uh as a modern medical scientific person also that mind is the master controller and we are not just talking about brain brain is the you can say the Hardware the mind is the software the Mind controls everything there are many diseases in the body which get manifested because of mind or they get started by mind so uh you know I'm glad
(27:14) today people are more and more are talking about the stress the impact of mind because today you know today's times are difficult times you know I tell this to my children also the kind of stress we faced in our lives of course we also I'm a I'm a I'm a doctor kind of studies and the rigorous training schedules we went through in our lives but still the kind of stress which today's generation is facing is very difficult you know very different your suggestion to the women who are planning to get pregnant uh for taking
(27:48) care of their emotional health so uh first be aware if there is stress or not and in case you feel that there is stress understand what is the reason of stress you know I somehow don't buy this idea okay be happy to meditation yoga and if you do this and you're not taking care of the reason for the stress it will not go away sometimes it's the pressure uh of not having a good job of not finding the right partner however yog meditation unless and until you are tackling the root cause of that stress so first understand if there's stress
(28:27) find the root Ro cause try to work at finding the answer for that root cause of the stress and of course take care of everything else around it like you do yoga I'm I'm myself a yoga person I love my yoga do yoga meditation Clean Diet good exercise all those things are very very important and like there is no one easy formula you know just somebody is able to find that that person is going to get a super super Noble PR right before we go any further in this conversation just a quick reminder for you to subscribe to my new channel where
(29:07) I share my insights as an emotional intelligence coach and now let's get back to the episode you also talked about premature menopause and uh when you said 35 I'm 35 now so it just kind of alarmed me in that sense that you know uh even that is a possibility and like you're seeing the age for the men menopause is also I'm seeing that it is also reducing like for my grandmother what the age was for her menopause what was fun for my mother and even uh people who are just a little over U you know 40 they are also
(29:40) experiencing menopause uh people that I know of so why is this age also reducing and uh uh 35 is pretty alarming a number so uh it's a fact like I said women are losing their eggs faster because of the reasons which I mentioned alcohol smoking lot of environmental toxins bad diet I mean believe it or not we are surrounded by bad diet I mean everything comes in a package it's Ultra processed Ultra refined so we need to be very very mindful of what we are putting inside our bodies not just the physical stuff and of course the mental stuff
(30:18) also uh and uh I advise this to every woman after maybe 25 only to get your egg Reserve tested and then take a call accordingly so amh test that you said which checks uh what is your ovarian health and what is the egg count now I recently came to know of this uh because my friend uh she had this test and she told me that uh you know she's going through it and I was like what is that I don't even know the name I mean I would consider myself very very ignorant of all of this you know this part of of my life I have you
(30:56) know kind of ignored never taken an effort to kind of go through these conversations and you know we we also live in an illusion that I'm healthy I work out so much my choices are better I make good lifestyle choices I sleep well I do all of this well so this won't happen to me so I think we should also take it as a precautionary uh you know statement from you that uh we should be more aware of things is what I'm realizing personally speaking to you at this moment so um you know I had um I had an exp patient in opid and um she
(31:33) was I think just 34 she was uh a WEP in one of the big organizations she came to me that she's missed her favid and she's thinking that she could be pregnant we did her pregnancy test pregnancy test was negative and then when we investigated we found that she's already in menopause I could see tears rolling down her cheeks and she was like oh you know I had just settled in in my career and now I was thinking of getting pregnant so don't let that happen to you and um yeah so for all the viewers who are watching please talk to your doctor and
(32:07) um get your uh test which is amh there's another test called FSH there's another test called is just a blood test I got to know it's a blood test and of course there's an ultrasound also so but most important is to be aware and uh aware of all this you know the very fact we started May three was because as a doctor I always used to feel and you know today we are in a age of era where at the click of a button you get so much of information but whether that information is really correct is it really the scientific
(32:49) information in today's age everybody calls themselves a expert can my PC's expert who my fitness expert I mean we have experts all over so but who's the real expert you know people are not really going to them so that was actually our intent of creating me so that we can give that you know uh you know people can be sure of the information which they are getting that this is the real medical stuff uh the correct information recently we uh got recognized by wh saying that Matthew is a voice you can trust so now today we
(33:28) are called as fights for wh Dr Kumar Indian women are experiencing an increasing rate of cervical cancer I would want you to shed some light on that as well India is India accounts for 1/4 cases of cervical cancer and we have to think what is it wrong which we as Indian women done to get that cervical cancer so the easiest thing to detect cervical cancer is a papsmear now in countries like like us and UK the papsa weights are maybe 97 to 98% now in a Metro City like guro the pmia weights are maybe 7 to 8% only now
(34:12) forget about smaller cities probably that's the reason India accounts for so many cases because we don't go to a doctor so that we don't fall ill we go to a doctor when we have fallen ill very badly it's so surpris Rising when I ask a urban woman do you know what a papsmear is and many times I say I get an answer ma'am what's papsmear it's so sad I mean this means that as a society as Medical Professional we need to be doing our bit more so that people get the right information and once again at matri also we we constantly keep talking
(34:55) about so I mean these are basic things pregnancy or no pregnancy it's your duty to protect yourself your body it's very very important like you said papsmear in the west uh it's a policy that every two or three years A woman has to go through a papsmear it's a part of their medical policy is what something that I recently got to know and in India that is not a conversation at all like my friend who was recently visiting she told me that yeah it's a you know 2 years once you have to get it done and I've gotten it
(35:24) done I don't need to get it done here but my other test I'm going to get it sorted with um my G here so I said okay she said yeah once every two years you have to go through that test to kind of reduce your chances of or eliminate your chances of cervical cancer so um I would want to know more about the symptoms of cervical cancers from you so there are few facts which I want to uh change also which you said so number one let's talk about what is cervical cancer first of all what is cervix so cervix is the mouth of uterus it's a part which is
(35:56) hidden deep inside your vagina which means that outside you cannot see it you cannot even in all in many cases feel it also cervical cancer is a cancer of cervix so uh it typically happens because of a virus called HPV which is the human papilloma virus and there has been a recent talk about the vaccine you know uh vaccine is something which prevents the HPV firm getting inside so HPV uh I mean we have vaccine and it's been promoted and marketed by the vaccines but papsmear was not promoted by any vaccine because there was no
(36:35) commercial interest of any organization there so let's talk about a vaccine yes vaccine is highly recommended we have you know uh vaccines uh we have a latest nanov valent vaccine and uh the vaccine has to be given from 9 years onwards the best time to take the vaccine is 9 to 26 years after that it is known as a vest Q vaccination which is 26 to 45 years after 45 it doesn't serve any s you know purpose so for all the mothers who are watching this make sure that you ask your doctor for a vaccine for your daughter 9 to 25 years in fact today the
(37:14) CDC CDC is the biggest body uh um which is the center for disease prevention and control that recommends that even young boys need to be given the HPV vaccine not only does it cause a Serv iCal cancer it can cause penile cancers in men it can cause genital it can cause anal cancers head and neck cancers throat cancers so HPV is a very big problem uh now coming to papsmear so papsmear is a test which is very simple test takes about just 2 minutes to do it's not really painful doesn't cost much and it has to be done by a
(37:52) gynecologist only so in this what we do is we just look inside the vagina with the small instrument and we simply you know take a smear from the surface of the cervix to look for any malignant cells so papsmear is to be done every 3 years not two years it it is to be done every 3 years from the age of 21 years now whether a person is sexually active or not she still must get a papsmear done every 3 years from the age of 21 years till she turns 65 now is we also have a testing called HPV testing so in case you're getting a concomitant HPV
(38:33) testing then you need it only once in five years in case you've taken a vaccine and in case you get a paps meere both there's practically 100% protection against cervical cancer it is possible to completely avoid the risk of cervical cancer yes and of course you know uh before that you know it's like you know your sexual behavior also is very important in case somebody is engaging in a multiple sexual uh partner relationship that person is a a higher risk of cervical cancer because her risk of acquiring an HPV is much
(39:16) higher so your your sexual behavior your um you know your sexual partner's Behavior your practice of using a barrier cont reception all these are also very very important safe procedures safe practices which you can do to prevent the cervical cancer oh this is an eye opening conversation for me and I'm sure that the viewers will also have multiple takeaways from it Dr Kumar um is it important for women to go to a gynecologist even before they're pregnant or they're planning to get pregnant absolutely absolutely so see
(39:54) when you are thinking of pregnancy it's it's important to go to a doctor the doctor will take a detail history in case you any medications for example somebody's diabetic somebody's hypertension hypertensive there are certain drugs which are not safe so the doctor will change your drugs the doctor would get certain tests done to find out if you are ready and you know um if you are fit enough to plan a pregnancy uh of course this is a time when you should stop alcohol smoking the doctor will tell you what are the best
(40:27) days and you should be trying uh for a pregnancy so that you get pregnant first so it's uh and of course the doctor will put you on folic acid and other supplements which are essential so very important to go to a doctor Dr Kumar I recently came to know of this rubella virus also that is also one test that gynecologists are recommending to the women who are planning to get pregnant what is Rella virus so robella is known as German Measles so German Measles is a simple viral infection in case it happens let's say to a non-pregnant
(41:00) woman or a man it is like any other flu maybe little bit of a rash or something but in case it happens to a pregnant woman it can be so bad that it can cause birth defects so any woman who is planning a pregnancy as a part of Investigations which we do we check her robella antibody level which means if she has good amount of antibodies against robella she's less likely to get a fresh rubella infection so there's a test for that and how does one get that those antibodies is either by getting a rubella vaccine or in case you've been
(41:40) exposed to rubella infection earlier in life and uh these days when uh when a child is I think 13 months old we give a vaccine called MMR measles moms and rubel and it is given for this reason only so that when that girl child goes into a childbearing age she's already immune against re immune to rebella yeah so these are some really important tests that one needs to do before exact planning a child so that they uh ensure the health of the baby and the mother to the best possible extent exactly and for exactly this reason it's important to
(42:16) visit a gynecologist even before you're planning your pregnancy absolutely more so in the late age because our bodies are getting deficient of so many things the issues that are not there in our 20s uh they take over in our 30s you know something like uh hypothyroidism something like hypertension or even diabetes or even fluctuating uh you know different hormonal levels in your body all of those changes are happening so uh it's a very important uh advice that uh youve given that one must consult their gynecologist not only when they miss a
(42:48) period and are thinking that oh my God am I pregnant now but even even before that we talked about menopause I also want to have this conversation about periods you know these is the age for everything I feel is decreasing even for periods uh back in the day it used to be 13 14 years of age but now even 11 year 10 year old girls are experiencing periods why is it happening like that H so we see even girls as young as eight years having a p I was going to say eight but then I wanted to reserve myself from saying that very scary
(43:22) because at that age a girl is not emotionally mature to understand the consequences and implications of having a PID and secondly we have uh you know these days uh a scientific correlation that early periods actually can signal the closure of growth plates in the bone which means a girl may not increase reach her actual height potential so uh it's very important that the periods happen at the right age now the sad reality is that girls getting periods early so the biggest reason for this is the bad lifestyle so which for somebody
(44:04) who's just 8y old yes yes so if you see a young child who is 2 years of age who is looking at phone all the time if you see a young girl who's 6 years old who's playing in front of the PlayStation not going out that Mama I'm tired to go out and play who's getting foods like PE burgers and pizzas and finger chips and everything C drinks everything yeah so we are like I said we are living in a bad world where we are constantly surrounded by bad food choices where we have every reason to be physically inactive we as parents need to be very
(44:45) very careful of this that we are feeding our children the basic food the basic food is like what nature wanted us to eat you know we need to be making sure every I mean a child of 8 years or 10 years should be playing at least for 2 hours in the mud in the park or whatever she should not be sitting in front of a screen but this is the time when we need to be inculcating those things you know in a young child so this is purely a lifestyle for so bad lifestyle is the only reason for girls
(45:32) experiencing their periods much faster only reason my God so parents who are having their kids uh their girls who are experiencing period at the age of 8 n 10 years old they must be very very careful but if it has happened then can we can they take corrective measures of course so you know don't come suddenly like this so puberty typically has many stages so in the beginning the child starts to get you know hair in the pubic area or the axillary area then the breast Bud comes and then little later the periods come so in case a mother is
(46:07) noticing that the girl is showing these signs it's important that she visits a doctor the doctor can do certain tests and in case we find that she's at risk of getting a period early there are certain medicines which can be given to stall that hormonal process then and there only wow so that the periods happen at the right age yeah what is the right age or the ideal age for a girl to have a first period so uh technically anything between I would say 11 years onwards is fairly safe okay but by 16 years in case a woman is not getting a
(46:42) PR that is another problem but 11 12 years is a pretty like there are you know many problems attached to periods uh one of the problems that is now becoming very very prevalent is PCOS and PC o uh this this condition is I think I was reading a research and that said that one in every four women has PCOS or pcod or at least the symptoms so what is it exactly what is PCOS and pcod and what's the difference between the two so actually it's all same PCO PC o PCOS they're all one and the same thing so as the name suggests PCO stands for
(47:21) polycystic ovy so in this the OV started with tiny tiny multiple cyst and these produce abnormal hormones which can lead to irregular pids acne lot of hair in the body and uh weight gain later on infertility later on cancers sleep apnea diabetes hypertension once again pcz is completely lifestyle problem completely when I say this 30 years back when I was doing my postgraduation we hardly had a small chapter in our textbooks talking about PC and we used to just omit that
(48:07) exam 20 years back I started seeing regularly pcod patient 10 years back I was myself wondering what is this happening today if I see 50 patients in a day I see 10 new patients of pcod every day such is the enormity or magnitude of problem so the statistics say one in three to five women today suffers from some kind of manifestations of PC why is it that our grand moms our Nani and daddy never had PC why is it that today women from lower socioeconomic status are still protected against pcod women in villages still do not get it that
(48:52) means there is something wrong which is happening in today's modern Earth Urban affluent women which is making them prone to this so once again lack of physical activity completely sedentary lifestyle people are not moving out people have practically cars you have Maids you have such fancy gadgets you have online shopping you have availability accessibility and affordability of bad food which means at 3:00 if you want swiggy to deliver you a chocolate pie it will come to your place it will not cost you bad you know too
(49:37) much so it's bad food which is available accessible and affordable and on top of that the biggest reason of PCOS is lack of good quality sleep can you imagine such a simple thing people are not sleeping today so we need good quality sleep if you remember I spoke about the effect of brain on the reproductive hormones all our hormones are released from the brain in case we are Disturbed in our sleep then the hormonal release pattern from the brain is Disturbed which leads to signaling of everything wrong in the reproductive
(50:15) Cycles so if you want to be want to get rid of pcod make sure number one you eating absolutely clean food which is not processed not packaged not made in Factory not comes in a packet which you made it yourself fresh F in fruits vegetables lentils you're physically moving remember we are designed to move we are not designed to be sedentary so if you exercise great otherwise also make sure that at home you're constantly moving I mean if you ask let's say a poor woman she doesn't go to gym she doesn't go to yoga class what does she do she's active
(50:55) throughout we look at our grandma moms they never did any fancy exercise but they were physically active and they were sleeping well so all these women who are protected from PCOS they do three things right they eat clean they sleep well they move their bodies a lot Dr Kumar we are talking about periods and Sexual Health there's also a lot of curiosity around having sex during a woman's periods uh you know and that to unprotected because she does not have the risk of getting pregnant while she is on her period please help
(51:28) me understand this in detail so first of all technically there's nothing wrong in having sex during periods it might actually make it more easier because the entire area is little lubricated so it's okay but we need to understand that the risk of catching an infection at that point is actually higher so in case your partner is HIV positive or suffering from any kind of a infection you are likely to get that infection much much much faster in case the sex happens during the uh pids chances of pregnancy at that point are very very less but not
(52:09) zero so this also people needs to understand in case somebody has shorter cycles and she let's say decide to ovulate on day eight or whatever some of the sperms might still in the in the be in the track to fertilize the egg which comes a little later so um um I would stay in casee you still want to engage use a baral method of contraception also there is again curiosity about having sex during pregnancy is that safe yeah technically it is okay uh unless and until your doctor has told you to refrain from it because of some medical reasons like
(52:47) somebody's having some kind of pain or bleeding somebody is at a risk of premature labor or abortions other wise um as long as the sex is done in a position which is comfortable to Mother it is uh not done too forcefully it should be okay I also want to talk about uh vaginal Health now women as such we as human beings are very insecure people a lot of decisions that we take in life a lot of um emotions that we feel are basis insecurity and uh one of the reasons for women in insecurity is also their vaginal health you know um from a
(53:29) very young age as a girl you are told different names for your vagina you are uh you know uh told to not talk about certain things to not wear certain clothes to not sit in certain positions etc etc so there is there is an inherent feeling of shame or an inherent feeling of insecurity particularly about your vagina and once you hit your puberty and as you grow older you also experience the smell in your vagina so Is that real do all women have this vaginal smell and how does that lead to increasing insecurity in women so first of all it's
(54:05) very very sad uh you know that women are made to feel insecure about the way they look down there nobody talks to a man how they look down there it's very very sad so it's important for the woman to stand up and own up that space that's very important and that's where the uh the you know the role of the family comes in that uh we need to be talking to our daughters in a little more open Manner and telling them that there is it's important to talk about the period saying the word period don't say I'm chumming I don't know from where this
(54:40) damn word has come I find it so irritating when people say I'm down I as them why do you say that you are down so stop saying that I'm down I'm chumming why say that I'm having a period kutam bu now coming to the uh vaginal Health number one there is nothing like a perfect vagina like there's nothing like a perfect face all of us have different even though we have two eyes one nose but each one's face is unique similarly the valva even if it is Leia Majora Min which is okay the vaginal skin or rather you know let's say it like the
(55:19) valal skin is dark by by Nature it is supposed to be dark you don't need to use any kind of uh whitening creams or brightening creams or any kind of vaginal washes so I have said this on multiple platforms and at metri we've spoken about this so many times that you don't need to use anything down there and I mean it anything any vaginal wash anything for smell color correction nothing nothing nothing at all you just need to own up that place you just need to use do that basic cleanliness the basic maintenance that's it you just
(56:00) need to wash that area once with normal soap and water you don't need any fancy soap you know the the body wash which you use for your whole body just open the valva clean it up nicely there that's it wear cotton undergarments do not clean that area from you know back to front clean it from back front to back you know the basic things and of course be very careful about your about your sexual health you know if you're involved with multiple sexual partners but using a vaginal wash it's it's absolutely stupid so you should be
(56:36) careful on those things rather than spending money on those vaginal washes or vipes or deodrants or perfumes or bit and cream so on record like you were saying that uh you know there's nothing like a perfect face all of us have different faces and all are perfect uh but on our face also there are so many corporations companies who are you know kind of uh playing on the insecurities that we have that get brighter and you know reshaped these days surgeries are so common just to reshape and you know enhance certain
(57:08) areas and all of that is happening to the vaginas as well you know I was reading this um American Research or something they they're doing surgeries on the vagina to make the color as white like brighten it up it's just insane not just the not just the cream insan is the world all Apex scientific bodies like American College of observation and gynecologist rcog everyone says that all genital cosmetic surgeries are not right they actually serve to increase the in Securities in the mind of women and they have their own medical risks like
(57:46) causing infections scaring nerve damages and in case your partner is asking you to do it think about the partner again right the question that I ask all of my guests at the end of the podcast is their definition of success so to you I want to ask you your definition of success in reproductive health for women so I would say for a woman it's very very important to own up your body and be proud of whatever it is despite its imperfections and whatever comes with it it's only when you're proud of something then only you will have the motivation
(58:24) to look after it and then you will go to the right resources and do the right things so most important is be proud of what you are and own up your body own up your body own up your mind and own up yourself just the way you are yes and then anything else uh can happen on top of that but the foundation needs to be strong thank you for such a strong message Dr Kumar um uh for joining me on the journey within podcast I'm sure that the viewer including myself of course have learned so much from this conversation and I really hope that we
(58:54) are able to catch Young girls um people at the right age to educate them about these these right things like something like uh HPV that we discussed today 9 to 26 is the age which I which I got to know some four or five years ago uh in my 30s so I hope that the right information goes to the right people who need it thank you once again for joining me thank you it was my pleasure too thank you so much for watching today's episode I'm sure you've gained a lot of new Knowledge from this episode please uh write your experiences down in
(59:25) the comment section because that comment section helps YouTube understand that this video is about some good information and then it helps us reach aided audience please do like share comment and also as I was saying in the beginning 93% of you guys those listen to our podcast are not our subscribers yet so please hit that subscribe button and keep showing your love to the journey within podcast so that we can continue creating these wonderful exciting episodes for all of you thank you so much once again I'll see you in
(59:55) the next episode