While on one side Women empowerment, saving female baby and female education is a social development happening in India, the number of female patients visiting for PCOD/PCOSto Gynic doctors are on the rise. I know families where girls are not allowed to do the daily chores along with their mother, but only study. There are girls who don’t take interest in kitchen or household works but only grooming, slimming or office work. Trying the cuisine of all available hotels and restaurants are a common hobby nowadays than eating home-made food. Not to mention the high competition level in the education and work places where mental and physical stress is at the high. Young girls opt for Gym to tone up muscles and get a slim-trim figure, but end up with heavy bleeding during periods!
The Rutumaticharya (Ayurveda Regime of the menstrual lady), is not understood and given importance. Hygiene is not looked into. Pills taken to prepone or postpone periods. All lead to hormonal imbalance and PCOD/PCOs being one of them. There are cases of girls starting periods at the age of 6 and 7 years. All because of wrong lifestyle.
A CASE STORY
In 2017, a college girl of 18 years approached me with her mother to my OP in
Healing Earth Multi-Speciality hospital, Bangalore, for absence of periods since 3 months. Her Ultra-scan showed PCOS. She had a lot of pimples on her face and constipation.
When I took her history, the girl was staying in a hostel for her degree studies. From morning till evening they would have continuous classes. Evening they would hardly get time to relax or do their daily chores. Would start studies and record/project work till late night. Whatever food they got from the hostel they ate; if it was not palatable they would stay hungry. Buying from outside was difficult as their hostel was in the outskirts and out of reach of home (It is a common thing nowadays). In the mess they got broiler chicken 4 days a week, which she relished happily. It was after a few months of stay in the hostel that she started developing irregularities in periods.
Whenever she got a few days of leave, she would be pampered with lots of non-veg, no work and even spoon-fed by her mother! Mother specified that because after some years she would get married and go away, she wanted to pamper her.
I started her treatments with Panchakarma detox and medicines. Within a week she got her periods. I put her on yoga and advised her to make it a practice even in her hostel. Told her to stop broiler chicken as hormones injected in these birds enter into the body creating hormonal problems. Corrected her lifestyle and diet and strictly told her to follow it. Had to scold her mother also for treating her as a baby! All
symptoms related to her PCOS subsided after some months.
She took all the advices seriously and followed it. She took follow-up treatments and medicines for some time, and understood the importance of lifestyle and diet. Till now she has not complained of irregular periods again. But what touched/worried me was, when she said, “Ma’am, almost all my friends have this issue of PCOD!”