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Rampant spread of sexual disease
By Nilufer Atik, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 03.10.02A 16-year-old girl has been pregnant 10 times since the age of 12, research has revealed.
The girl, who has two young children, is understood to have undergone three abortions and suffered five miscarriages in the last four years.
It is not known whether all 10 pregnancies were by the same man or a string of partners.
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.
A doctor made the discovery after being granted access to the girl's medical notes, which would normally be kept private.
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.
The study also revealed that girls under 16 were three times more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases than older women.
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.
The results of the study, conducted at a clinic in Camberwell, have been published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infection.
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.
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.
"We were expecting to see quite high levels of infection because south London has problems with chlamydia and gonorrhoea, but even we were surprised.
"If the younger children had similar levels to older women that would be surprising enough, but they had three times as many."
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.
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.
"The first time may have been through ignorance but by four times we'd hope the message had got through."
Dr Creighton's research indicated that girls were less concerned about keeping clear of infection than they were about keeping a regular sexual partner.
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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