Ways to ease the menstrual pain

By Dr. Shobha Gupta 

Hindustan Times - HT City

Menstrual pain is a common thing among teenagers and adults. However, there are many ways to tackling the problem in a more natural way. 

1. Try light exercise – Exercise during your periods is more than just required. If your body is active then lesser pain will be felt. Mild exercise is a must. You can simply walk around or use treadmill for this purpose. These simple exercises will help increase flow of blood. 

2. Rich diet is a must - There are certain foods that can help ease menstrual pain and discomfort. Eat lot of whole grains like brown rice or pastas. Also include lots of fruits, milk and green leafy vegetables as it helps to ease the flow during menstruation. 

3. Hot showers or hot bags - Use either hot water bag or ice bag whatsoever suits your body. Hot compress is more ideal as it can give you immediate results to ease the pain. If it doesn't seem to work then use ice packs instead. You can also have a hot water bath concentrate on the flow of water on your abdomen and back. 

4. Massage during periods gives your body a relaxing feel. Try and do some gentle upwards motions on your lower abdominal area. Repeat the

Loosing weight before Infertility Treatment improves IVF Success rate

By Dr. Shobha Gupta  

Losing excess weight before undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment can improve pregnancy and birth outcome.   

A body mass index (BMI) of 19 to 25 is considered to be the ideal weight for conceiving. A healthy body and optimum weight during pregnancy is crucial for having a smooth pregnancy and delivering a healthy child.. According to recent study 70% of India's urban population is obese and comes under overweight category.   

Both underweight and overweight women and men suffer from a higher incidence of infertility.  Women who are obese are also at a greater risk for pregnancy complications like having a C-section, giving birth to a large baby or even developing gestational diabetes and hypertension.   

There are numerous potential complications for obese women trying to get pregnant. Some of these include:   

1.Lower response to medication used to regulate or initiate ovulation.  

2.Greater need for carefully titrated dosing of medication, especially in patients with polycystic ovaries (PCO).  

3.Greater frequency of over-response and the risk of 

There is a biological clock for men too

By Dr. Shobha Gupta 

As we all know that age factor is directly associated with decreasing fertility in women; their eggs grow old. But age does affect the fertility level in men too. Yes, you heard it right, age affects men too. After the age of 30, there is a drop in testosterone of 1% per year. Testosterone is the energy, the hormone that you need to make good-quality sperm. It’s not just women who have to worry about their ticking reproductive clock. Men's sperm quality seems to decline after the age of 35. The older a man is the more his sperm cells are dived, and the more divisions present, the more there is a chance for an abnormality to occur. 

Studies have shown that age of male is directly associated with a decline in semen volume, sperm motility, and sperm morphology. Many studies have claimed that pregnancy rates decrease between 23% to 38% in comparisons between men under 30 and men over 50. Sperm count declines with age, with men aged 50–80 years producing sperm at an

Surrogacy Bill 2016: why to ban commercial surrogacy.?

Mail Today

By Dr. Shobha Gupta 

Surrogacy has become a sensitive topic in India. Changes in the surrogacy law or regularizing it; has become a debate over long now. Last year when surrogacy banned for foreign couples in India, it has become a debate then also. Medical tourism plays a significant role in bringing foreign currency to the country. Moreover, these women were able to support their families with this money. Recently, the surrogacy bill passed by the government of India brought turmoil in the rising area of assisted reproduction.

I believe Surrogacy shouldn’t be treated as immoral or illegitimate. There are about 50 million deserving infertile couples in India who will remain childless because of this ban by the government. In my opinion commercial surrogacy shouldn’t be banned instead it should be regulated and monitored properly so that nobody can misuse this opportunity. 

By banning commercial surrogacy, infertile couples will loss the opportunity to become a parent and at the same time surrogate will also loss the monetary benefits associated with it.  Also, by saying Altruistic surrogacy, in today’s time not every relative come forward to become a surrogate. So, in my opinion commercial ban is not very appropriate. 

After certain bans there is definitely a decline in surrogacy cases. But if you see, Surrogacy actually helps people have their own biological child.