Women's health with Dr Rasheedah

This week I thought we’ll change gears a little bit and discuss water infections (UTIs). The term ‘water infection’ is used to describe infections of the urinary tract or bladder. Infections occur when bacteria from the anus travel up the urethra into the urinary tract and cause infections at various sites. Water infections are quite common particularly in women, it is estimated that 1 in 4 women will experience a urinary tract infection at some point in their lives and women are 10 times more likely to have a water infection compared to men. The reason women are more prone to these infections is due to anatomy. Close proximity of the female urethral meatus(opening of the tube that connects the bladder to the external genitals) to the anus, shorter urethra, and sexual intercourse(bacteria can travel up the urethra during sexual inter course)have been reported as factors that influences this higher prevalence in women. Urinary tract infections can affect women of all age groups in...

This is the final post in the infertility series. Thank you so much for joining the conversation ladies, the feedback has been amazing and I'm glad that you've found the series and other posts useful. This week we will be discussing tubal factor infertility-basically this is infertility caused by damaged fallopian tubes. The fallopian tubes are a pair of tubes leading from the ovaries to the womb, they enable the passage of released eggs to the womb, it is in this tube that the egg is usually fertilized by the sperm. Tubal factor infertility is estimated to affect about 20- 25% of couples seeking fertility treatment worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, tubal factor remains unofficially one of the leading cause of infertility due to pelvic inflammatory disease- a complication of sexually transmitted infections. Infertility or sub fertility can occur when the Fallopian tubes are blocked(one or both), scarred or damaged in other ways. Tubal damage prevents the ovaries from...

  So this post was inspired by a recent visit to Nigeria. The statistics for unwanted pregnancies and/or abandoned babies is alarming and the truth is they are preventable. A brief data gathering exercise from the women that surrounded me at a point in time revealed that the average woman was not armed with enough information to choose the right contraception and consistently access and use this method. It was sad that a few teenagers I spoke to viewed contraception as either condoms or ‘Postinor’. The average age of first sexual intercourse is around 15, according to the World Bank, in many communities talking about sex before marriage is taboo or ungodly and contraception is believed to encourage promiscuity amongst the youth. It is important however for women in the world today including Nigeria to arm themselves with information and take control of their sexual health. Another barrier to women accessing contraception is the notion that it is expensive; However Postinor-...