On the occasion of World Kidney Day and International Women’s Day, nephrologists stressed upon the need for women to have health screening early in their life so as to avoid the kidney related complications later on.
“Women are more prone to Chronic Kidney Diseases owing to lack of awareness, limited access to healthcare and other underlying health conditions. They should undergo health screening early in their life's so as to avoid complications in later on,” said Dr. Sunil Prakash, Director& Senior Consultant, Nephrology & Renal Transplant Services, BlK Super Speciality Hospital. A special awareness programme was launched on the occasion in which more than 150 women from all section of society actively participated.
Experts told that Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a global health problem with adverse outcomes of kidney failure and premature death. According to the Surveys the disease affects approximately 195 million women worldwide and it is currently the 8th leading cause of death in women, causing 600,000 female deaths each year.
“The risk of developing CKD is higher in women compared to men. Surveys show that currently, 10% of Indians have CKD of varying stages and women constitute nearly 48 percent of Indian population,” said Dr. Prakash.
“Women are more likely to get chronic kidney diseases than men. From adolescence to adulthood, women have high proclivity for Urinary Tract Infection. Recurrent UTI gives rise to Pyelonephritis (severe infection of kidneys) and repeated Pyelonephritis may lead to renal failure,” he said.
He highlighted a case of 27 year old women, who wanted to have her second baby and was undergoing through a secondary infertility treatment. However all of a sudden she started having a severe pain in her stomach and was rushed to BlK Super Speciality hospital.
“Investigations revealed that she was undergoing through secondary infertility treatment in a local nursing home, where she had undergone through a procedure for removal of obstruction in fallopian tubes. Here her kidneys, which were badly affected, recovered with timely and proper medical management. Otherwise it would have very difficult to revive her kidneys without transplant,” said the doctor.
Saying that there are several such cases where kidneys are damaged because of use of pain killer medicines, anesthesia or other un-prescribed medicines. “During pregnancy women have high chances of infections. If a pregnant woman experiences slight increase in blood pressure and or slight rise in blood sugar level (gestational diabetes), chances of renal damage increases manifold. Termination of pregnancy done incompetently in unhygienic conditions may cause havoc to kidneys. Menopause can be another cause as after menopause, chances of heart and kidney disease increases to nearly the same level as in men.” he said.