If your menstrual period lasts longer than five days or if you’re bleeding more than once a month you might just be anaemic. You could feel weak, struggle to climb stairs… “But what women don’t realise is that they don’t need to suffer. There’s a simple remedy to anaemia in the form of iron tablets,” said Aruna Tantia, consultant gynaecologist of ILS Hospitals.
Tantia was at CK-CL community hall as part of an anaemia camp by Rotary Club of Salt Lake Metropolitan Kolkata, held in association with Bidhannagar CK-CL Block residents’ association. A past president of the club, Tantia was in charge of this project.
Period basics
An anaemic woman could have pale under-eyes, pale tongue, brittle hair, dry skin and nails that do not appear pink. “The problem is that most women don't even know they are anaemic and as for periods, even educated urban women don't know what a normal period is,” explained Tantia.
A normal period lasts three to five days and the woman would be using three to four pads a day. In such a case her total blood loss during the period is about 80ml. “But if it lasts more than five days, if she bleeds in clots or if the periods occur more frequently than once a month, then over a span of six months she would have lost much more blood than normal. This can cause major weakness,” said the doctor. Anaemia is the lack of haemoglobin in blood. Haemoglobin is the vehicle that carries oxygen around the body.
Monitor your periods to ensure you do not get anaemia
Treat it right
Anaemia is treatable with iron tablets and correct nutrition and results can be seen in three to six months. Patients at the camp were getting their blood tested on spot, and if their haemoglobin level was less than 12, received free iron tablets for several months. They were also counselled.
“Don’t eat with the sole motive of filling your stomach. There is more to nutrition than eating than rice and boiled potatoes. You need different kinds of vegetables – spinach, lady’s finger, mocha, sojne data, jhinge,” said Tantia, laying special emphasis on the juice of kulekhara leaves. “No medicine works as well as this to combat anaemia.”
She also recommended dates, sesame, beet, carrots and pomegranates. “Apples are good but expensive. We have ample indigenous food that women can benefit from. We Rotarians conduct lots of camps around the year but we identified anemia as a burning issue and decided to focus on this,” she said.
Suranjan Chakrabarti, a gynaecologist volunteering for the project, was overheard explaining dietary requirements to Aruna Bairagi, one of the women who had come for the check-up. “Her haemoglobin level is only 8. She needs a healthy diet and iron tablets,” he said, handing her a booklet Rotary has prepared on anaemia.
Bairagi, who lives in a CL Block garage, confessed to weakness and lethargy. “But I never consulted a doctor about this as I didn’t think it was important or even treatable,” she said.
The block’s general secretary Shanti Ranjan Pal was happy to be hosting this camp. “We conducted this mainly for domestic helps and service staff. Residents are dependent on them and need them to stay healthy. But these staff seldom have the time or awareness to get themselves checked,” he said.
Near and far
“The government runs a campaign called ‘Anemia Mukt Bharat’ focusing on children and pregnant women so from Rotary, we are targeting others,” said Tantia. Men can get anaemia in special cases too, if they have gastric ulcers and the like.
“We want to cover 20,000 women across the state. We started this project in 2020 from DA Block, on the edge of Salt Lake, where we got women from Duttabad. Later when we went back to check on them, we saw all but three women there aneamia-free,” she said.
The Rotarians have conducted camps at other added areas of the township such as Chhainabhi, the interiors of Rajarhat, the Sundarbans etc. “Government statistics say 48 per cent of women are anaemic but we are getting an average of 68 per cent,” said Tantia. “It’s only in Birbhum that we found tribal women very healthy. They had no diabetes, hypertension and very low instances of anemia whereas in Salt Lake it’s 60 per cent!” said Tantia, urging other block associations to get in touch if they want to conduct this camp in their localities.