Weddings in our country involve all kinds of preparations, from wedding dress, hair, makeup to the decorations, venue and honeymoon destination, everything is taken care of but what’s often overlooked at is a premarital health checkup.There is a need for the couples to understand the importance of health check-ups before tying a knot.
A premarital checkup is defined as health assessment of couples that are soon-to-be married. These health examinations are conducted in order to detect any kind of genetic, infectious and transmissible diseases. The idea of such tests is to ensure that no disease is transmitted to the couple or their children.
In order to reduce the prevalence of many such genetic diseases our government has drafted a law, making blood tests mandatory for the investigation for everyone wishing to get married.
The law implies that all the residents of our country are bound to clarify the blood screening tests in order to get married. No person shall marry without certification.The law acts as a preventive measure to curb blood complications and other disorders before marriage but the saddest part is that, there are some very useful laws which have being passed by the courts but no one bothers to get them implemented or follow them up, neither the government officials nor people are concerned about such serious issues which are raised for our own protection.
The major stigma in conducting such tests is the mindset of our society, most people are very conservative and they raise eyebrows over such suggestions. People start to wonder if there is anything wrong in the first place to warrant such a suggestion. There is always the fear of the intended marriage breaking up in case the results of the health check turn out to be worrying.
In order to make things work, the first step should be taken by the bride and the groom, they should discuss this among themselves and be convinced of why this is required. They should then take it upon themselves to educate their parents on why this should be done, and what are the benefits of getting a health checkup done.
WHY ARE PRE MARITAL CHECK UPS IMPORTANT?
Premarital health checkups are very important because they help the couples to accomplish the following:
*Assess the general health of the bride and the groom.
*Detect infectious diseases like Hepatitis B, HIV, sexually transmitted diseases etc.
*Identify the risk of any possible genetic diseases, such as Thalassemia for instance, that could help the couple make decisions on whether or not to have a child.
*Genetic tests could also be used to screen for mental illnesses such as Schizophrenia.
*Check for any fertility problems.
Knowing the results of these tests can help the bride and the groom make an informed decision in the future about themselves as well as their children. For instance, if one of them has history of diabetes in the family, lifestyle changes can be adopted to ensure that one is at a lower risk.
IMPORTANT TESTS FOR PRE MARITAL PROBLEMS
FOR MALES:
- Complete haemogram
- Blood Group and Rh Factor
- RBS(Random Blood Sugar)
- HbA1c, HIV, VDRL, HbsAG
- Urine Routine
- Semen Analysis
FOR FEMALES:
- Complete haemogram
- Blood group and Rh Factor
- RBS(Random Blood Sugar)
- HbA1c, HIV, VDRL, HbsAG
- Urine Routine
- Pelvic Ultra Sound Screening
BENEFITS OF FERTILITY TESTS
POST-MARRIED LIFE BECOMES PEACEFUL:
Thinking of the pre marital test, all the couples usually presume the negative aspect. Though, the results are positive in most of the cases. Therefore, a couple opting for pre-marital tests can avoid various problems and lead a peaceful marriage.
CONFIRMATION OF STATUS:
Pre-marital checkups help in knowing the health status way before any problem occurs. Couples can start medical treatments to cure any diagnosed problem. These checkups also help them in avoiding the issues of infertilities, in the later stages when they wish to conceive.
PRE-PLANNING FOR ALTERNATIVE MEASURES: Knowing about the problems timely can help the couple in finding various alternative measures. In the era of development, calling off the marriage due to such reasons should be rare. Partners can talk and think about alternate measures of solving the problems.
CONSEQUENCES OF OVERLOOKING FERTILITY TESTS
POST-MARRIAGE ISSUES:
Overlooking the premarital tests especially the fertility test can lead to a breaking of a bond. In case of negative results, a pre-marital test may lead to calling-off a wedding. But if avoided, it definitely ruins married lives.
FAULTY-EXPENSIVE TREATMENTS: In case of uncertainty of any health issues, you may end up taking up faulty and expensive treatments. Most of the time couples have lack of knowledge about the actual issues due to misguidance, they end up taking up various expensive treatments. Also, these treatments prove to be faulty and lead to serious health issues at times.
People become uncomfortable about premarital checkups, though they look forward to lead to a happy and healthy married life. However, the pre marital tests are important for promoting a healthy lifestyle.
I am not a doctor, but I have a firm believe in premarital health checkup because it could be used as an opportunity for some pertinent diagnosis for the to be married couples. This could offer a crucial health assessment of the soon-to-be-married couples, helping them be aware and prepared and prevent any risk of transmitting any disease to each other or their children. These programmes could be used to educate couples on how family background, hereditary factors, age, diet, exercise, weight management and addictions all contribute to the bigger picture.
Premarital health check-up has been gaining importance overtime. This check-up is important because almost the entire married life of the couple can be based upon the results of this test.
It is conducted at almost all the hospitals today and is being taken up by a number of to-be-couples. It is to ensure that a couple leads a prolonged, healthy life.
