10 Medical Tests To Carry Out By Intending Couples

Medical and health issues will impact your marriage either positively or otherwise. Hence, there is a list of medical tests to carry out by intending couples. In this article, we will be looking into them.

Sometime ago, a concerned lady sent me a message on WhatsApp requesting that I should help her with a list of medical tests to carry out by intending couples.

I assumed that she was about to get married and thus needed to do those tests. I didn’t ask her about it. I promised her that I’m going to write a blog post on it so other people can benefit from her question. She was the one that inspired this article.

To love and be loved is a wonderful feeling, to get married is an exciting experience and to walk down the aisle to tie the nuptial knot is the dream of many people. Couples that are already married can testify to this.

However, to enjoy your marriage to the fullest, health issues need to be taken care of. Health issues come with a lot of challenges and thus can impact your marriage negatively making it less enjoyable.

I know a couple that searched for children for about 12 years. Fortunately, God answered their prayers and blessed them with a set of twins and then with another baby making it a total of 3 children, all boys.

Unfortunately, within the space of 2 and half years, they lost 2 of their children. Those children died from sickle-cell anaemia. The couple’s genotypes were not compatible, it was later discovered. You can imagine the pain the couple went through.

It is important that before a couple gets married they conduct medical tests to determine their health status and compatibility. Hence, there are lists of medical tests to carry out by intending couples. We’ll get there in a minute.

Why Conducting Medical Test Is Important

1. Knowing your health status will help you to make an informed decision

Decisions are made based on the knowledge you have about what you want to decide. If you’re not sufficiently informed, you will not make the right decision. Hence, knowing your health status will help you to make the right decisions when the occasion demands it.

2. It prevents birth defects in your future children.

Many of the children suffering from one form of birth defect to another are a result of one medical problem to another which their parents didn’t take notice of probably because they were ignorant or didn’t do a medical test before getting married.

3. Early Detection

Doing a medical test will help you to detect any health issues and to treat the same before the marriage.

4. It protects you from contracting a disease

Carrying out a medical test before marriage not only equips you with knowledge of what to do at a time but also protects you from contracting any disease from your partner.

10 List Of Medical Tests To Carry Out By Intending Couples

While I was doing research for this article, I found an article that captured a list of medical tests to carry out by intending couples. Instead of writing a fresh article, I decided to share the article since it says everything I want to say. This was written by Doctor’s Hub Nigeria.

1. Genotype Test

This test will reveal to you whether you are a sickler (SS), a carrier of the sickle cell trait (AS), or normal (AA). This test is one of the most important on this list. In fact, some churches now make it mandatory for would-be couples to have their genotypes done. It is too important a test not to do.

The sickle cell trait is so common among blacks. You may not be a sickler but be a carrier of the trait (AS) and you only need another partner carrying the AS trait to give birth to children who are sicklers. The suffering that comes with being a sickler or having a sickler child is too grave for any couple in their right-thinking minds to ignore.

2. Blood Group/Rhesus Factor

This one is the easiest and most common of them. Yet, some couples still throw caution to the wind and do whatever they like. Apart from the fact that knowing your partner’s blood group can prove useful in saving his or her life during an emergency, it also finds useful application in preventing a condition called hemolytic disease of the newborn (Erythroblastosis foetalis- a condition affecting newborns where their blood is destroyed by maternal antibodies).

It is caused when a Rhesus-negative mother is pregnant with a Rhesus-positive child (rhesus factor is an antigen found on the surface of red blood cells and seen in 85% of humans) and her body is stimulated to produce antibodies against the baby’s blood.

While the index pregnancy may not result in complications, subsequent pregnancies (in which the babies are Rhesus positive) are severely attacked by maternal antibodies. The offending antibodies, already synthesised by the mother during the first pregnancy, viciously attack and destroy the baby’s blood, leading to stillbirth and miscarriages.

3. HIV Test

The sheer number of deaths due to HIV and AIDS makes it an infection of importance. All couples contemplating marriage must know their HIV status before walking down the aisle.

Since this infection is readily transmitted to the baby during birth, couples must make the necessary efforts to successfully prevent the mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

4. Fertility Index

This is a test done to ascertain the fertility of a couple. More often than not, a couple is unaware that they have fertility problems until about 2 or more years after marriage and unsuccessful trials at conceiving.

The test profiles the reproductive hormones in both partners while semen analysis is tested in the man and ovulation is tested in the woman. Except a couple is not willing to have children before or after marriage, this is one important test to get done.

5. TORCHES Screen

TORCHES [T-toxoplasmosis, O-other (varicella zosters and parvovirus B19), R-rubella, C-cytomegalovirus, H-herpes simplex, and S-syphilis] are a group of infections which the growing foetus contracts from its mother. They account for about 3% of all congenital anomalies.

Their importance in the success of any pregnancy cannot be overemphasised, as they are known to cause stillbirth, miscarriages, and other terrible congenital complications in the baby. It is important that couples get screened for them before marriage and particularly before they try to conceive- almost all cases of the infection in the baby are gotten from the mother.

The goal of screening is to diagnose parents who are infected with one or more of them and treat them promptly before marriage or conception.

6. Genetic Screening

This is an extremely vital and recent test added to the list of medical tests to carry out by intending couples. As it has been shown, some diseases are inherited from parents because of their genetic nature (i.e they are found in the genes of the parents).

Diseases like cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and a host of other terrible diseases are of genetic origin and transmitted from parents to their offspring. By knowing whatever genetic ailments a couple harbours, they can undertake measures, like genetic engineering, to mitigate the risks of transmitting the ailment to their children.

7. Mental Health Assessment

Countries like China and Malaysia and some Arab countries have made these medical tests to carry out by intending couples mandatory premarital tests for all couples. However, even with its growing acceptance in other parts of the world, Africans have refused to acknowledge the importance of this test. Yet, its impact on marriages and relationships bears grave consequences.

Mentally unstable people have been found to exhibit violent behaviours. Also, some mental ailments like bipolar disorder have been found to run in the families-for example, children having at least one bipolar parent have a 10% risk of having the disease while children with both parents have the risk increased to 40%! If at all you are unperturbed about marrying a mentally unstable and violent man or woman, undertake this test for your unborn children.

8. Test For STDs

STDs too? Yes! Take gonorrhoea for example- it is the commonest infective cause of the pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) which if left untreated can fester and result in infertility in the woman. Also, STDs have been linked with the transmission of HIV, and are also known to cause miscarriages. Just before you say, “Yes, I do”, make sure you and your partner are not harbouring any STD or grudges, as the case may be.

9. Screening For Chronic Diseases

Chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart conditions must be screened for. This is because they negatively affect the outcome of a pregnancy. Any couple intending to marry must know their hypertensive and diabetic status because of the association of these conditions with infertility and high-risk pregnancies.

10. Thalassemia Test

This is a test done to detect the thalassemia gene in a couple. Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder characterised by the production of big, abnormal haemoglobins (the proteins that carry oxygen in the blood). Because they are not normal, red blood cells that carry these hemoglobins are constantly destroyed, leading to anaemia.

With a test called haemoglobin electrophoresis, a couple can tell whether they carry the trait and if they do, they can implore assisted reproductive technology to prevent their babies from inheriting the disease.

An Extra

11. Pregnancy Test

A couple was preparing to get married, one of the requirements of the church before they were wedded was for the woman to carry out a pregnancy test.

The test was conducted and the woman was discovered to be 2-month pregnant with a baby. The pregnancy was not from the man because he never touched her.

This test is important, especially for the man to avoid raising a child that is not yours. It has been proven that most of the firstborn child doesn’t belong to the man.

To carry out all these tests, consult your doctor for advice and guidance.

Conclusion

Marriage is a forever journey, all things being equal. Therefore, it is important to be adequately prepared in all areas for it. One of the areas to be adequately prepared for is the area of health.

You prepare in this area by ensuring that you carry out the necessary tests as we discovered in this article and also ensure that you are compatible healthwise with your intended partner.

Hence, this list of medical tests to carry out by intending couples is something you should not joke with if you hope to enjoy your marriage to the fullest.

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10 Medical Tests To Carry Out By Intending Couples