Premarital checkup gives peace of mind to lovebirds

Premarital checkup gives peace of mind to lovebirds

Maria Endah Hulupi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Getting hitched marks one's life cycle, but marriage can provide
trouble if both couples fail to have a clean bill of health.

A few days after she got married, Yanti felt discomfort in her
private parts. It was itching and she suffered from a sort of
burning. She noticed a red spot in the area and yellowish vaginal
discharge.

She decided to pay a visit to a dermatologist. The latter told
her that she had a fungal infection and prescribed her some
medication.

However, a week after the treatment, her infection showed no
sign of improvement. She was confused and had a niggling feeling
that she might have got the infection from her husband.

Yanti tried to convince herself that it wasn't from him, but
she couldn't deceive herself because she spotted him secretly
scratching his private parts also on a number of occasions.

"I would try my best to go through the ups and downs together
but sharing diseases is not part of it," she said.

A general practitioner from the Metropolitan Medical Center
(MMC), Rudy Winarto, said that a premarital health checkup is
important to make sure that the couple are in good health before
they decide to tie the knot, stressing that it should be regarded
as a preventive measure.

"The aim of such a checkup is to make sure that couples know
their own health situation so they can plan a healthy family and
raise healthy children," he said.

Apart from that, it is also important that a person knows and
accepts the health situation of his or her future partner for
life before they make such an important decision.

"If a health check revealed a certain health condition that
could put a member of the couple in a difficult position, things
may be different," said an obstetrician/gynecologist with the
Omni Medical Center (OMC), Nining Haniyanti, referring to
azoospermia (the absence of spermatozoa in the seminal fluid) or
testicular feminization (a genetic defect that can lead to
undeveloped testes and sterility in a man).

Such tests can help people make the necessary efforts to
prevent the spread of infectious diseases through bodily fluids,
like blood, saliva, sweat, sperm, and vaginal and seminal
discharges, which commonly occur during sexual intercourse.

Besides sexually transmitted diseases, genetic diseases, like
thalassemia, hemophilia, diabetes and mellitus can be properly
monitored and infections like toxoplasmosis, rubella,
cytomegalovirus and herpes (TORCH), which can cause repeated
abortions and affect fetal development, can be treated.

The idea of such a health checkup, however, is not new and
local hospitals design health packages for premarital checkups,
which include the medical history, physical examination, ECG,
chest x-ray, and laboratory tests (for blood test, blood sugar,
liver functions, serological test, urine, feces and sperm).

The test takes about two to four hours approximately and the
result is available in a few days.

The check can be followed with a recommendation for further
consultations with specialists should any health problems be
detected.

A consultation session is very important and because personal
information is confidential, couples can hear the result together
or separately.

"It is advisable for the couple to have a consultation as a
thorough examination can be performed and proper treatment can be
given," Nining said, while explaining that by doing this,
possible secondary infections (or the possibility of contracting
the same disease from an untreated partner) could be avoided.

Apart from the above mentioned tests, other experts also
suggest the importance of examining mental health to discover
possible major mental disorders that could affect the marriage,
such as schizophrenia, manic-depressive psychosis among other
diseases.

Both doctors said that although premarital health checks were
available in various hospitals, only a few couples use the
services, mainly because of less public awareness on the
importance of health checks and the expense involved.

"The annual number of local couples who have their health
checked in this hospital could be counted on the fingers of one
hand, and most of these couples' medical checkup costs are
covered by the companies where they work," said Rudy.

Nining added that many people, especially the brides-to-be are
reluctant to have their health checked because sex-related issues
are still considered taboo and many people still have the wrong
ideas about premarital checks.

"Many people want to keep it private and they often think that
having their body examined is embarrassing. This is why they are
unwilling to consult a doctor," she said.