Institute of Reproductive Health

Reproductive health has never been an exclusive topic for people preparing for pregnancy, nor is it an unspeakable secret tied to "sex." It is a daily health management item covering all ages and regardless of gender. It is much more closely related to the late nights you stay up, the anger you get, and the minor problems you often make than you think.

I have been in this office for almost 8 years and have seen too many people who have taken detours. To be honest, many people either don’t pay attention to their health, or they simply don’t know that our minor problems are under our control. Last week, a sophomore girl came in with her face covered. She did not dare to speak for a long time after registering. She thought that she had suffered from some serious and shameful disease after having irregular periods for three months. After asking her for a long time, she said that she was afraid of being laughed at by her roommates and did not dare to come to the gynecology department or even the campus hospital. Finally, she found out that it was caused by hormone fluctuations caused by staying up for a competition for a month. She was prescribed some medicine and told her not to stay up late and everything would be fine. There is also a 32-year-old male programmer who was forced by his wife to come for a pre-pregnancy check-up. He always thought that backache and weakness were a normal reaction to sitting for a long time at work. When he was found to have weak sperm, he was confused. He said that he had never thought that "reproductive problems" could fall on him.

Speaking of this, some people may ask, why should I pay special attention to it even if I don’t feel uncomfortable at ordinary times? I really want it. The screening data we conducted together with the community last year showed that nearly 40% of people of childbearing age aged 18-35 have varying degrees of reproductive system sub-health problems, and 80% of them have no symptoms at all - such as reduced sperm motility in men and insufficient luteal function in women. They usually have no obvious symptoms. They only discover it when they are preparing for pregnancy. It takes as little as three months and as much as half a year to treat them.

Colleagues in the institute often argue about whether to intervene in advance for these asymptomatic sub-health problems. An old expert who has been working for almost 30 years believes that as long as the indicators do not reach the threshold for clinical diagnosis, there is no need to prescribe medicine and you can just go home and adjust your lifestyle. After all, medicine is only three parts toxic. ； Some young doctors also feel that given the current pace of life of young people, it is more difficult to ask them to change their daily schedule, give up milk tea, and exercise three times a week. It is better to intervene early and use gentle means to avoid the problem from getting worse. Both statements are supported by real cases: a girl with polycystic tendencies quit milk tea for three months, and her hormones returned to normal levels directly after regular exercise. ； There are also those who insist on not taking medicine, and eventually have amenorrhea and need to take more hormone therapy. Our current approach is generally to explain all the pros and cons to the patient and let him make his own choice - after all, your body is your own, and only you have the final say as to how much energy you are willing to spend on your health.

Many people's understanding of reproductive health is still stuck in the misunderstanding that "only young people need to take care of it." Last month, a 62-year-old aunt had repeated urinary tract infections for almost a year. Every time she bought some anti-inflammatory drugs and took them, she got better. After a while, the problem came again. Finally, it was her daughter who forced her to come. It was found that the reproductive tract mucosal atrophy was caused by the decrease in estrogen after menopause. She was prescribed some topical estrogen cream, and it was cured after two weeks. The aunt herself was embarrassed, saying that she still came to see this kind of disease at such an old age, which made us both laugh and cry - the reproductive system follows a person throughout his life, and it will also have problems when he gets older. There is no age limit.

There is also the issue of the HPV vaccine that has been discussed a lot. There is a lot of quarrel on the Internet now. Some people say that vaccination is useless if you are sexually active. Some people say that vaccination after the age of 45 is a waste of money. According to the follow-up data just released by our institute last year, for women aged 30-45 who have had sexual intercourse, after taking the nine-price treatment, the infection rate of high-risk subtypes is still 37% lower than that of those who did not take the treatment. Of course, if you have been infected with a certain subtype, the corresponding protection will indeed decrease, but the treatment is not completely in vain. There is no "absolutely cost-effective" standard for this matter. If you are afraid of infection and your finances allow it, there is no harm in getting vaccinated. If you feel that your risk is very low, regular HPV screening is completely sufficient. There is no need to listen to people on the Internet to convince each other.

Oh, by the way, a few days ago, a mother brought her 15-year-old son to be circumcised. The first thing she said when she came in was, "Doctor, don't tell him that there is some or not, he is still young." I couldn't help laughing at the time. The 15-year-old boy already has basic physiological understanding. Telling him how to clean and judge whether there is inflammation will actually protect him. There is always a free reproductive health science manual at the front desk of our institute. There are junior high school students who come in and grab a copy, and there are also square dancing aunts who copy two copies and go back to show their wives. Every time we see this scene, we are very happy. We feel more accomplished than seeing ten difficult cases in a day.

In fact, the earliest full name of our institute was "Institute of Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Control." It was changed to the current name a few years ago in order to draw everyone's awareness from "fertility" to "health." After all, having children is just a choice in life, and having a body that is comfortable and free from minor ailments is the trump card you must hold in your hand, whether you choose to have children or not. Finally, here is a reminder: Regardless of men and women, wash your private parts with clean water every day, wear loose cotton underwear, sit for less time, and don’t hold your urine. If you do these few small things, you can avoid 80% of minor reproductive system problems. It is really much more useful than buying hundreds of yuan of Internet celebrity care solutions and kidney health products.