- A 16-year-old girl has been pregnant 10 times since the
age of 12, research has revealed.
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- The girl, who has two young children, is understood to
have undergone three abortions and suffered five miscarriages in the last
four years.
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- It is not known whether all 10 pregnancies were by the
same man or a string of partners.
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- Her story came to light when researchers looked into
the worrying spread of sexually transmitted diseases among underage girls
attending a sexual health clinic in south London.
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- A doctor made the discovery after being granted access
to the girl's medical notes, which would normally be kept private.
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- Researchers said it was known the girl, who cannot be
named, had suffered abuse and had been receiving counselling. Hers was
the most shocking case among the 144 underage girls at the clinic they
visited.
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- The study also revealed that girls under 16 were three
times more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases than older
women.
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- One in five had chlamydia, a symptomless disease which
can cause infertility, and almost one in 10 had gonorrhoea, which also
poses a threat to fertility by damaging fallopian tubes and can increase
the chances of suffering an ectopic pregnancy.
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- The results of the study, conducted at a clinic in Camberwell,
have been published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infection.
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- The records of all 144 girls aged between 12 and 16 were
examined. Dr Sarah Creighton from Camden Primary Care Trust, who led the
study, said the findings were very worrying.
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- She said: "My research hit me in the face. I was
completely unprepared for the sexual cases I encountered. It was not just
sexual ignorance. They knew that if they didn't use a condom they were
at risk of infection.
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- "We were expecting to see quite high levels of infection
because south London has problems with chlamydia and gonorrhoea, but even
we were surprised.
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- "If the younger children had similar levels to older
women that would be surprising enough, but they had three times as many."
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- The girls admitted to doctors at the clinic that less
than a quarter of them had used contraception during sex and most of them
had become pregnant at least once.
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- Dr Creighton added: "They were unable to negotiate
safe sex - to insist on a condom. What shocked me was the number of girls
who came back time and again with another infection or pregnancy.
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- "The first time may have been through ignorance
but by four times we'd hope the message had got through."
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- Dr Creighton's research indicated that girls were less
concerned about keeping clear of infection than they were about keeping
a regular sexual partner.
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- Nuala Scarisbrick, trustee of the charity LIFE, said:
"These latest findings make depressing reading but sadly they are
what we feared. Children are experimenting with sex, and sexually transmitted
diseases are rampant."
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- http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/1450176
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