Infertility is rising over the time, especially among women. Today women are focusing on their careers and choosing to marry late due to which the very process of planning a baby is delayed. By the time they are ready in their marriage to have children; they may be past the reproductive age. Other factors that lead to rise in infertility are STD’s, rising number of abortion cases, male infertility, increasing habit of mobile phones, laptops and smoking etc. There are many ways to overcome this problem like by initiating social programmes regarding sexual education, improving smoking habits and avoiding environmental toxins. It can also be curbed by going for medical assistance at right time and to meet this we have assisted reproductive technology (ART). Moreover, I would like to point out that there is no initiative taken by either private or government on this front. Government is focusing on population control and spending money on it but not ready to put money for infertility issue. They need to know the agony of infertile couple and should make balanced efforts towards population control along with infertility. But I believe that one need to provide sexual education at school and college level especially to girls regarding giving birth to children at right age and also about the contraceptives to avoid STD’s which further leads to infertility. Moreover it will not lead to instant impact, it will take years to look at the results as adolescent girls getting educated from such initiatives will give birth to their children when they are at adult age.
– Dr Rashmi Sharma, Sr Consultant, Moolchand Hospital