5 Health Checks To Keep Your 'Happily Ever After' On Track

While getting swept up in the fantasy of romance in the pre-wedding stage can sound alluring, the reality involves endless planning (designers, florists, caterers and the works) and many potentially awkward conversations too. These uncomfortable but important conversations can include anything from finances to your medical history and proclivity for health issues.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the most important pre-wedding steps is being aware of each other's physical and mental makeup. Aside from healthy and two-way communication, pre-marital medical screening can help in this too. A medical assessment carried out for both partners before the wedding can act as a lighthouse and warn both people about the possible challenges they are yet to witness in their life ahead.

Why is Pre-Marital Screening Important?

Pre-marital medical screening also helps understand sexual compatibility and helps with timely detection, prevention and aggravation of genetically inert health conditions. Moreover, it also potently helps in family planning and helps us make wiser choices concerning our lifestyle.

Dr Kiran Coelho, Head of Gynaecology at Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai, recommends finding out the medical history of at least three generations of your partner's family before deciding to get married. “Apart from providing an ideal base for family planning, pre-marital medical screening also helps diagnose conditions like PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), fatty liver that may prove to be a hindrance in family planning and eventually cause tiffs between the couple,” she says.

According to her, some diseases in an individual's gene pool may be dormant because of a healthy lifestyle but they may still be passed down to the next generation with increased intensity if their partner is also a carrier of the same disease. “A medical screening helps to nip problems in the bud stage before it is too late. In, a pre-marital medical examination, apart from educating people about each other bodies, also helps them be watchful about their lifestyle choices.”

If you’re up for the medical talk with your bae, here are a few medical tests that you can opt for before tying the knot…

(DISCLAIMER: Consult your physician and discuss the following option with them before going ahead with any medical testing)

5 Pre-Marital Medical Screening Tests to Opt Before Your Wedding

Blood Group or RH factor compatibility test

The blood and Rh compatibility test is one of the simplest tests performed during a pre-marital medical screening assessment. It provides a bird's eye view of a person's biological makeup and gives an overview of his or her bodily functioning. Dr Coelho says, “Apart from helping during crucial times like accidents, operations and complicated pregnancies, being aware of each other’s blood groups and blood constituency significantly reduces the risk of counteracting miscarriages and also prevents pregnancy complications.”

VDRL test for STDs

The Veneral Disease Laboratory Test (VDRL) test is another simplistic and economical examination that couples can undertake to detect sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis and ensure a healthy sex life.

Dr Akansha Allahbadia Gupta, Gynecologist and IVF specialist at Sumitra Hospitals, Noida, who is also a social educator, says, “Females are at a higher risk of developing STDs than men. Apart from regular intercourse, one can also counteract sexually transmitted diseases during pregnancy, after intercourse and during labour pain. Thus, to strengthen and ensure aided protection and reproductive well-being, females should vaccinate themselves against cervical cancer, and men should take the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) to protect themselves against genital warts in the penile region.”

Thyroid test

The butterfly-shaped gland thyroid is responsible for our metabolism. It’s also responsible for the overall functioning of your body’s vital organ systems like the circulatory, sensory and skeletal systems. Changes in metabolism and metabolic rate can immensely affect reproductive health and lead to conditions like PCOS, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation. Thus, having a thyroid test before your wedding helps you have an overview of your thyroid gland functioning, understand your bodily limitations and make better choices about your dietary and lifestyle preferences.

Psychological evaluation

While it may seem impossible to gauge what is going on in a person’s mind, a simple psychometric test helps to give an insight into an individual's mental sanity. It also provides an overview of one's deepest fears, and trauma, when left untreated, can manifest into abuse and hamper the overall well-being of your marriage.

Dr Gupta says, “Mental health has a vital role in determining the sexual compatibility between two individuals. Conditions like vaginismus in females, which is defined as tightening of the pelvic muscles during intercourse, are mostly a by-product of sexual abuse endured in the past. Hence, opting for psychological counselling before your nuptials helps significantly reduce pre-wedding anxiety and open doorways for enhanced and open conversations between both partners.”

Rubella test

The Rubella examination is an important test for females in a pre-marital medical examination because females are at a higher risk of counteracting the Rubella virus in the initial and advanced stages of pregnancy.  The earliest symptoms of Rubella, an air-borne disease, include skin rashes, headache and pinkeyes. If left untreated, it can affect fetal development, lead to growth delays and hinder brain development in the unborn child.

A female’s resistance to the virus is determined through a Rubella examination. Dr Gupta says, “Whether a couple plans on conceiving a baby via the biological way or through help from an IVF specialist, the IGG factor test in the Rubella examination helps an individual understand their body's immunity against the infection and thus reduce the chances of counteracting birth complications and defects.”