CDV: The Challenge Of Birth Control

Birth control,  in
today’s marriages has  come to stay especially  as couples  take out tier time to  monitor  and meet u p with the ever-challenging economic  situation of the times. The health sector  world over  and indeed the Nigerian government  both at the federal and  state levels including female non-governmental organisation (NGOs) have also put in their best in senistising  and creating  awareness among women and men alike on the need to check the number of children to be born into the  family in so much that even trado-mode men  have got no option but to come to terms  with it.
So far, the gesture has been a welcome development particularly among the young and enlightened  couples  of the day and the methods  of this birth control have been maximally utilized  by mothers and  women in general.
But one of the fall-outs of the 2014 medical  Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN) week Rivers State  Chapter Penultimate Monday  left most women confused and worried of how to continue with birth control with the oral contraceptive  pills (OCP) as a major source of risk of cardiovascular (CDV) disease in women.
Consultant cardiologist, Dr. Sandra Ofori while delivering a lecture on the sub theme of  this  year’s  Milan week “women cardiovascular Health”, revealed  that the oral contraceptive pills, pills taken by women to check  their intake of pregnancy, was responsible for 36 per cent of deaths in women adding that 63 per cent of women  die annually from cardiovascular  disease.
Cardiovascular  disease, the name given to several  problems of the heart and blood vessels which can stop the heart beat  and lead to death  includes  stroke, heart attack, hypertension and other disorders of the heart or blood vessel was revealed  to be a  leading health problem and women is susceptible to these  challenges because of her nature.
Ofori said “the woman unlike her male counterpart  alone can get pregnant,  give birth,  breast feed,  look do the  nanny and house chores sometimes all at the same time. This situation alone can pose a serious health challenge even of the cardiovascular  but then, an attempt to check these huddles even of child bearing is another risk itself.
Ofori who is also a member of the Medical  Women Association of Nigeria  in the state also indentified  smoking among the  women folk as another  risk factor of cardiovascular  disease saying “on a general note,  94 per cent of CVD is smoking. However, 50 per cent of heart attacks  among  women is due largely to smoking and so women smokers apart from the oral  contraceptive  pills are susceptible to developing CVD.
Against the glamour that cancer is the common health challenge of women, Ofori said ‘breast cancer kills only about four per cent of women. Heart  disease, stroke and hypertension are the number one that kills and cardiovascular is the number three killer of women.
The consultant  cardiologist stated that the clinical presentation of CVD include  nausea/vomiting abdominal pain, jawpain, back pain and diabetes. Describing  these symptoms as distracters, Ofori  said the CVD was most times misdiagnosed  because of the symptoms  are almost  a general symptom  of most common ill  health.
Because of the generating of the CVD symptoms, there is a misconception by both women and health officers in so much that they always mistake  it for other minor health issues thereby resulting  to a  leading cause of deaths among woman especially.
Sequel to the good intension of the oral contraceptive   pills yet constituting a threat to the woman’s health, Ofori said however that there are still some hopes. “The good news is that cardiovascular disease  mostly does not develop until after menopause  which is about  50-55 years in women and for the men, it develops after 40-45 years. The women have 10 years advantage over their men  counterparts. It therefore calls for more carefulness especially on the parts of mothers and women in order to check this silent deadly disease,” she said.