Pregnancy loss often leads to questions about a woman's health, age and lifestyle, especially in Indian families. But health expert Rashi Chowdhary has shared a different way to understand what may happen in the early stages of pregnancy.

She explains that both sperm and egg play a role when an embryo begins to form. According to her explanation, sperm carries the father's DNA, but it has limited ability to repair damage before fertilisation.

She compares sperm to a tightly packed suitcase carrying important genetic material. Things such as high blood sugar, smoking, vaping, unhealthy food and poor sleep may affect sperm health. She further explained that the egg has systems that can repair some DNA damage after fertilisation.

According to Rashi Chowdhary, “The minute fertilisation happens. The egg and the sperm come together. Your egg has to unpack this suitcase. Once it unpacks it, all of this damage becomes visible. And then your egg has to go looking for all these nicks and breaks and starts to fix it one by one, using all the repair tools that your egg has inside, years before you were even trying to conceive.”

She explains that egg quality also refers to how well an egg can repair DNA damage. If the sperm has more damage than the egg can repair, it can affect the embryo's development. Chowdhary added that in the early stage, the embryo cannot repair this damage on its own. The egg has to do this work quickly, before the first cell divides.

In the caption, Rashi Chowdhary shares, “Here's a fertility fact more people need to know: The sperm brings the DNA. The egg helps repair it. Sperm has very limited DNA-repair capacity after fertilisation, while the egg contains the machinery needed to repair DNA damage in the paternal genome. Which means sperm quality matters before conception, not just sperm count. And fertility isn't just a woman's responsibility. Both egg and sperm quality matter.”

Rashi Chowdhary says women should not be blamed for miscarriages or fertility problems. She added that both partners are involved in pregnancy, so the husband should also take equal responsibility and look at his own health and lifestyle.



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