“Urological disorders posing risk to quality of women’s life” Health & Lifestyle

Friday, 12 June 2009 07:54 administrator
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Source : The Hindu Date : 12.06.2009

“Urological disorders posing risk to quality of women’s life” Health & Lifestyle

M. Dinesh Varma

Delay in mean marriage age, changing lifestyles, stress cited as reasons

CHENNAI: The flip side to the emergence of a brave new generation of self-assured, confident and career-oriented modern woman is showing up in the clinical setting.

With the mean age of marriage and the birth of the first child delayed by a few years, as more women turn working professionals, a host of urological disorders are posing a risk to their quality of life.

This delay, coupled with changing lifestyles, stress and unhealthy diet is triggering a rash of urogynaecological diseases ranging from the stigmata-shrouded urinary and bowel incontinence to a life-threatening condition like breast cancer.

Doctors, who are worried that the well-deserved rise in social stature for women should come with health costs, recommend simple lifestyle modifications, balanced diet and pelvic floor exercises as preventive methods.

“With 50 per cent of women over the age of 35 suffering from some form of pelvic floor problem and the incidence of breast cancer doubling in two decades, there is an urgency to familiarise women on the ailments and their symptoms that most suffer in silence,” said Thankam Varma, Medical Director, Institute of Reproductive Medicine and Women’s Health at Madras Medical Mission.

MMM recently launched a Department of Urogynaecology and a breast clinic to exclusively cater to women suffering from these common disorders with the aim of catching disease at an early stage.

It is estimated that 3 out of 10 women with urinary problems have some form of urinary leak. When pioneering urogynecologist N. Rajamaheswari of the Government Kasturba Gandhi Hospital led a survey of 1,062 outpatients (aged 20-70), the results had shown an alarmingly high prevalence of Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI).

Experts say that urinary disorders are triggered by physiological changes in a woman’s life that damage the pelvic floor.

Among women above the age of 40, hormonal flux and the laxity of tissues lead to prolapse of pelvic organs — a condition associated with symptoms such as dragging sensation, palpating a lump, difficulty in walking or sitting.

Bowel dysfunction presenting as incontinence or faecal urgency is another problem that most women are too embarrassed about to even confide with the family let alone a doctor.

“Today, the barrier in treating urogynaecological problems is the reluctance of women to seek medical help rather than a limitation of treatment options,” said A. Tamilselvi, consultant urogynaecologist.

Cancer profiles in urban settings too have changed over the years with breast cancer outstripping cervical cancer as the leading tormentor of women. Going by ICMR data, the incidence of breast cancer is 1 in 22 women in Mumbai and 1 in 29 women in Chennai.

“While the emerging scenario is bad enough what is worse is that 50 to 70 per cent of these cancers are diagnosed at Stage III or IV when the tumour would have spread to lymph nodes and distant sites,” says Suresh Anand, oncoplastic surgeon.

With stage presentation of breast cancer a determinant of survival years (9 out of 10 women survive by simply detecting the warning signs early), it is important for women above the age of 35 to undergo a mammogram.

Last Updated on Friday, 12 June 2009 10:36