In any society birth of a child is the climax of happy union, fulfillment of a cherished dream and ultimate desire of a married couple. Every human being has an instinctive desire to become a parent and look after the offspring. Being a parent has many rewards and pleasures. For most people, to live alone, even with the loving mate, is unthinkable. Parenthood, as a stage of life, is characterised by the need to look after, to take care and for a woman it is also an expression of creativity and affection
Causes of infertility
In our society it’s conventional thing to blame woman for childlessness, however, it has been scientifically proved that both men and women could be the cause of same problem. Some main causes of infertility in Kashmir
(a) Late marriage: The dramatic trend towards delaying childbearing is perhaps the single greatest factor contributing to infertility. In our society many women and men have crossed the optimum marital age due which they become incapable to conceive. In Kashmir due to complex customary approaches people mostly neglect the scientific concerns that instead of marrying and starting a family in their 20’s, most of the people put off such commitments until their 30’s even to 40’s where the probability to conceive becomes very low. A woman has an excellent chance of conceiving throughout her 20s, and fertility begins to decline after age 30. Most experts agree, that a woman’s fertility drops sharply and by her late 30’s she is about 30% less fertile than her early 20s. at age 40 and beyond, pregnancy attempts are frequently unsuccessful and require a greater degree of medical intervention. Although latest techniques like IVF could help there but being very costly methods of treatment these can’t be made trend in the poor societies like ours
(b) Environment : Mostly neglected by the conventional specialists, environmental pollutants like pesticides, artificial hormones, cosmetic chemicals, air and water contaminants could pose great threat to the fertility
(c) Mal- nutrition and indigestion : Reproductive organs need well balanced nutrients to facilitate the development of sex and related hormones which could easily be found in fresh veggies, fruits, nuts and other natural products unfortunately growing trend of Macdonaldisation i.e, Pizzas, momos, spicy fries, schwarmas, soft drinks etc could impair the functioning of such organs. If wastes aren’t eliminated efficiently, the resulting build up of toxins can lead to infections and other conditions that may compromise fertility
(d) Over-weight: Obesity is on the rise and the health implications are grave. Even after consuming heavy calories adults even teens don’t prefer to work-out instead social networking is preferred even during consuming meals. Obesity can cause abnormal menstrual cycles, hormonal fluctuations, disruptive gametogenesis i.e. formation of gametes
(e) Caffeine, Tobacco and Drugs : These stimulants are all associated with drop in fertility. Tobacco and drugs even in tiny doses can jeopardize the chances of getting pregnant as well as having a healthy baby. These could even cause erectile dysfunction of secondary sexual organs in both males and females.
Fayaz Ahmad Parray is Research Fellow CCAS, KU