Situation alarming in Jaintia Hills owing to environmental toxins
SHILLONG: There is a rising incidence of infertility problem among the couples in Meghalaya especially in Jaintia Hills due to environmental toxins.
This was stated by Dr. Pramod Sharma, founder, Pratiksha Hospital, Guwahati, and an expert in assisted reproduction, In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) Test Tube Baby and Genetics.
“As per my observation in the past the two decades, there are large number of couples from the State especially from Jaintia Hills who have enrolled in the hospital for various infertility related problems. The numbers of couples who are visiting the hospital are increasing with each passing year,” Dr. Sharma said while addressing newsmen here on Saturday.
Admitting that he did not have the statistics of the actual number of couples who have visited the hospital with various infertility related problems, Dr. Sharma said that the number was seeing an upward trend which was alarming.
He said that while studying the various cases of infertility problems of couples from the State, it was found that a large number of women, especially in Jaintia Hills, were unable to conceive mainly due to environmental toxins resulting from air and water pollution.
He also informed that many women from Meghalaya were found to be suffering from decreased ovarian reserves and pelvic inflammatory disease or pelvic tuberculosis.
Dr. Sharma, however, noted that the problem of infertility was not restricted only to women in Meghalaya but was also common among the males due to excessive smoking and drinking resulting in damage to DNA.
While explaining that the problem was not confined only to Meghalaya, Dr. Sharma informed that nearly 30 million couples in the country were suffering from infertility.
Quoting reports he said that male infertility was almost as high as female infertility, adding that out of every 100 couples, 40 of the males suffered from infertility compared to 50 women. In the remaining cases, the causes are common to both men and women.
Highlighting the reasons behind rise in the number of issueless couples in the country, Dr. Sharma observed that busy and stressful lifestyles contributed to drop in libido and regular sexual activity among couples.
The problem of infertility is also due to delayed marriage and deferred childbirth among couples, he noted.
