Women in the Reproductive Age Group: Tips to ensure health and wellness

Dr. Milind Tiwale

Consultant – Obstetrics & Gynecology

Aster Aadhar Hospital, Kolhapur, India

The ideal reproductive age of a women can be said to be from 18 years until they reach menopause. This phase usually lasts the longest in a woman’s life. It is known as the reproductive stage because a woman’s body reaches its peak sexuality and allows her to give birth to children.

Proper care needs to be taken during this phase to ensure health and wellness:

• Reproduction: Ideal age for a woman to get pregnant would be before 35 years of age as there is an increased risk of genetic abnormalities and increased incidence of medical illnesses after 35 years.
• Pregnancy checkups: Proper scheduled checkups in pregnancy, to identify any complications early and to manage accordingly is very important. Consult your Gynecologist regarding tests for the same.
• Lactation period: Lactation also known as breast-feeding or nursing, is the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young one. Proper diet and exercise during lactation with proper medical advice is essential for both mother and baby.
• Planning a family: Parents should consider planning their family in a way that the mother has time to recover between birth of one child and her next pregnancy. Contraceptives should be used for the same, to avoid unwanted pregnancies.
• Infertility: If required, women can consult doctors for treatment of infertility through artificial reproductive therapy.
• General checkups: With rising incidences of hypertension, GDM, and other medical diseases in pregnancy, timely medical checkups are advised.

In addition to above, whenever any woman feels any changes in their body, they must consult their Gynecologist immediately to rule out any underlying conditions.