As many as 20 per cent of women who are under the age of 36 in the country suffer from low ovarian reserve or premature ovarian failure (POF) and many are not even aware of the problem, a top fertility expert warned.
“Our research has revealed that the biological clock of Indian women ticks much faster than their Caucasian counterparts. Aping the Western lifestyle blindly and delaying marriage and pregnancy can lead to POF and infertility. Other contributory factors include previous surgery on the ovaries for benign cysts, endometriosis and excessive drilling for polycystic ovaries,” Fertility Consultant at Nova IVI Fertility Dr Parul Sehgal said.
POF or premature ovarian insufficiency is a condition where there is a physiological decrease in the number of eggs in the ovaries. This could affect the chances of pregnancy even at a younger age.
The country’s top scientific institutes are fully aware of the growing problem and are looking for ways to tackle it. The students of the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad are going to conduct a research on whether technologies like IVF are helping in reframing the biological clock and giving mothers more time to conceive. The researchers are going to undertake the study on the ways in which ageing is conceptualised through in-vitro fertilisation by studying elderly couples conceiving and giving birth to children in north India with the help of the technology.
“Normally, follicles in the ovaries supply women with eggs until around the age of 45, the average perimenopausal age when the supply of eggs is used up. But in POF cases, women as young as 30 years old are seen with no eggs in the reserve,” Dr Sehgal pointed out.
A study conducted by Nova in partnership with leading Spanish reproduction medicine centre IVI and numerous other surveys have shown that nearly 1-2 per cent of Indian women experience signs of menopause between 29 and 34 years of age. This figure goes up to 8 per cent in the case of women between 35 and 39 years of age.
However, Dr Sehgal stressed that infertility was not a female problem. “It is a common misconception here. The incidence of male infertility is also on the rise these days and is rampant in cities where people face high level of pollution and follow stressful lifestyle. In fact male factor is found in nearly 45 per cent of infertility cases. Many male fertility problems go undiagonised and untreated, either because attention focuses on the partner or men are reluctant to get help,” she added.
It is estimated that around 30 million couples suffer from infertility in India and more and more young women are suffering from it. “Even young women in their 20s and 30s who face complications in conceiving should immediately visit a fertility expert as early detection would provide better opportunity for early intervention,” the doctor opined.