Premarital health check - Many barriers

(Baonghean) -The Population Ordinance stipulates: “The State encourages and creates conditions for men and women to have health check-ups before registering for marriage.” There are many benefits, but there are still many barriers that make young people hesitant.

When Le Van Son (27 years old, hamlet 3, Thanh Tuong) brought Thanh (his girlfriend) home to meet his family, he immediately encountered opposition: "Looking at a person so skinny, do you have the strength to give birth? If you want to marry her, you have to go for a health check-up first. If you have any illness, cure it first before getting married." Knowing that he could not change his family's mind, Son tried to persuade his girlfriend, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Thanh felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on her pride, and immediately snapped: "Why do you and your family think you are forcing me to go for a check-up? If I am sick, why do you cancel the wedding? It turns out that love is not as important as a health certificate, right? Go find someone else to complete the health records..." After saying a series of words, Thanh resentfully left, not giving Son time to explain.

Talking about premarital health check-up, Mr. Hoang and his wife Ms. Lam (Block 4, Cua Nam Ward, Vinh City) are still in shock. Both are civil servants, working in the medical field, so they understand very well the importance of premarital health check-up. Therefore, nearly a month before the wedding, they agreed to have a general health check-up.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly. However, close to the wedding day, Mr. Khang (Lam's father) suddenly called Mr. Hoang to his house and scolded: "Do you think my daughter can't get married anymore? Don't rely on your power to look down on others. Are you afraid that my daughter has a hereditary, incurable disease so you forced her to go for a check-up? If you look down on each other like that, don't trust each other like that, then the marriage should be reconsidered...". It turned out that the "father-in-law" saw the results of his daughter's general health check-up and asked his younger brother. The younger brother joked, "The family over there said that if Lam wants to marry you, she must have a health "certificate" so she should go for a check-up to submit for approval...". After that, Mr. Hoang and Ms. Lam had to explain for a long time before their father-in-law understood and accepted.

There are also many cases where both families asked the couple to go for a health check-up before marriage, but they were embarrassed and deliberately avoided it. If forced to go for a check-up, they tried to buy the results.

In fact, premarital health check-ups aim to detect genetic diseases, infectious diseases... even infertility. Then, there are methods to advise people coming for check-ups to prevent and promptly treat the risks of giving birth to disabled children for men and women preparing to get married, helping those about to get married to enter married life confidently, with enough health to have a good sex life, get pregnant and give birth safely. However, at present, this work is still taken lightly, many men and women of marriageable age are not interested. Ms. Phuc Thi Hang, Deputy Director of the Center for Counseling and Services on Population and Family Planning, said: "The first reason is that they think that the other person (male or female) is worried about their physiological ability. Second, they subjectively think that they cannot get sick. Third, they think that health check-ups mean not trusting each other, not respecting each other."

Adolescent health care counseling communication for students
in Nghia Dan district.

The issue of premarital reproductive health examination still has many barriers and has not received due attention, thus leaving behind unpredictable consequences. One of the leading risks is genetic diseases discovered after marriage; in many cases, due to fear of genetic diseases, many couples quickly consider breaking up with their partners who have just been "tied" for a few months. There are also cases where the husband and wife have to endure many haunting moments in their family life just because they have a genetic disease. Even more heartbreaking is that the children they give birth to also have birth defects or mental illness, or are infected with HIV.

Realizing the importance of premarital health examination, starting in 2006, the premarital project was implemented in Thanh Giang commune (Thanh Chuong). Benefiting from the project, the Premarital Club model was established in 5 hamlets in the commune, creating conditions for people, especially young citizens, to access knowledge about reproductive health care - family planning, have the right perspective on friendship, love, sexual relations and know how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

From the pilot implementation in 1 commune, up to now, 45 communes in 9 districts have benefited from the project with many practical activities such as: organizing training, giving talks, distributing documents and leaflets providing knowledge on reproductive health care; consulting and health examination for adolescents and young people. In parallel, the model of "Pre-marital health examination and consultation" has been deployed in disadvantaged communes, providing services such as examination, ultrasound, and free medicine distribution for adolescents and young people; the model of "Giving marriage certificates combined with reproductive health consultation" from the VNM7R207 project for hundreds of couples; implementing health communication in high schools...

In order for pre-marital counseling and health check-ups to be more effective, it is necessary to legalize the main contents regulating the process and content of counseling; the needs and conditions of men and women receiving counseling; the conditions and responsibilities of medical service facilities performing counseling and health check-ups... In addition to the efforts of the population sector, it is necessary for all levels and sectors to participate in communication work, raise awareness and most importantly, the people involved themselves must be aware that pre-marital health check-ups are "necessary and sufficient conditions" to move towards a safe, happy and sustainable marriage.

Duy Nam