Women's Health and Pregnancy

Ujjwala Baxi shows the easy way to supplement proteins in a vegetarian or even a vegan diet The other day I had a mother sharing with me her daughter’s New Year’s resolution of switching to vegetarianism and also that she continues to feel strongly about it. The mother, of course, had mixed emotions about the decision. While she was happy about her daughter’s apparent sensitivity towards animals, she seemed also worried about her daughter’s abrupt decrease in protein intake…

Screening and diagnostic tests The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends offering the option of screening tests and diagnostic tests for Down’s syndrome to all pregnant women, regardless of age. Screening tests can indicate the likelihood a mother is carrying a baby with Down’s syndrome. Diagnostic tests can identify whether your baby has Down’s syndrome. Screening tests during pregnancy Screening for Down’s syndrome is offered as a routine part of prenatal care.…

Today is World Kidney Day and the theme this year is ‘Kidney Disease & Children – Act Early to Prevent it’. We spoke to Dr Pankaj Deshpande, pediatric nephrologist, to apprise us about kidney disorders in children and how they can be alleviated. What are some of the common kidney diseases/disorders in children? How does it affect them? There are many kidney illnesses in children and that actually evokes surprise in a lot of people as they are quite unaware that kidney…

Changing the emotional response towards women with mental illness is what mental health activist Ratnaboli Ray, and her organisation, Anjali are trying to do. Here in conversation with PatientsEngage: A WHO report mentions that gender differences occur particularly in the rates of common mental disorders like depression and anxiety. These disorders, in which women predominate, constitute a serious public health problem. How do you address the concept of gender parity as far…

Dipti Bhatia is the deputy director of Vidya Sagar, a Chennai based organization working with persons with multiple disabilities. Undeterred by her own congenital visual impairment, she strongly advocates inclusion and empowerment of women with disability.   Have you observed any gender difference as far as policies and practices are concerned in Special Needs Schools like Vidya Sagar? There is no gender discrimination from the school as far as policies and practices are concerned.…

Reshma Valliappan, also known as Val Resh, is an artist-activist for a number of issues related to mental health, disability, sexuality and human rights. She lives with schizophrenia without medication and provides the early voice and leadership for persons living with mental illness to speak and advocate for their own rights. PE: As a mental health activist, what are the gender based differences you have seen in terms of access to diagnosis and treatment? As a woman, it is so…

Harmala Gupta traversed the journey from being a cancer survivor to founding CanSupport, a home based Palliative Care service in Delhi and NCR. CanSupport also runs out-patient clinics. Harmala Gupta shares her views with PatientsEngage on Palliative Care. PE: According to the ACHEON study ("The non-interventional, anonymous, non-biased ACHEON survey was the first and largest cross sectional evaluation of physicians’ and patients’ perspectives on cancer and non-cancer pain management…

An effervescent 18-year-old,  Preethi Srinivasan, a super achiever in every field. The world was at her feet and the stars in her eyes when overnight she turned into a quadriplegic. Preethi, today, is still reaching out to the world from her wheelchair and her organisation Soulfree is out to create great opportunities for those confined to the wheelchair. A freewheeling talk with the bright, young lady who, incidentally, talks into a speech activated software,…

Yes. Almost 70% of cervical cancers can be prevented by it, says obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Chandan Dubey, and strongly advocates that the HPV vaccine be made part of the national immunization programme.  What does screening for cervical cancer involve? Cervical cancer is the most easily preventable gynaecologic cancer because cervix is so accessible to screening. Cervical cancer screening involves 2 tests: Pap smear or liquid based cytology (LBC): This test involves…

"Women are referred to a gynaecologist at a higher facility; this is a major reason for loss to follow-up".  Dr. Suneeta Krishnan shares with PatientsEngage her findings and recommendations of the implementation science research project to promote the adoption and effective scale-up of cervical cancer prevention in India. 1. According to you, which screening method is the most cost-effective? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), screening for cervical cancer through…