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Doctors are still perplexed by the fascinating pregnancy story of a 15-year-old girl from Lesotho, South Africa, a landlocked country situated on the plateau of Southern Africa in the Maloti Mountains. The patient, whose extraordinary medical case first appeared in the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, in 1988, became pregnant following oral sex, although she did not have a vaginal opening. Yes, you read that right.
Doctors discovered that the South African teen was born with a rare birth defect known as distal vaginal atresia, a rare condition affecting the female reproductive tract. Vaginal atresia is characterized by the absence or closure of the vagina. This medical rarity, which occurs in approximately 1 in 4,000 to 1 in 10,000 women, results from incomplete development of the vaginal canal. In some cases, the distal vagina may be replaced by fibrous tissue. Often, the condition goes undiagnosed until puberty when a girl fails to start menstruating. While vaginal atresia is congenital, the specific genetic cause of the condition remains unclear.
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How did the patient get pregnant?
Medical officials discovered that the 15-year-old patient was nine months pregnant after she was rushed to the hospital following complaints of severe abdominal pain. After a few routine tests, doctors found that she was carrying a healthy 6.2 pound baby boy, which she successfully delivered via C-section, but how did she get pregnant without a functional vaginal opening or the help of in vitro fertilization?
According to the medical report, the patient revealed that oral sex was her preferred method of intimacy as she had attempted to have conventional intercourse multiple times without success. Tragically, during an intimate oral sex experience with her then partner, the 15-year-old was violently attacked by her ex-boyfriend, who caught her in the act with her significant other at the time. She suffered multiple stab wounds to the abdomen during the vicious assault.
Miraculously, the teen survived, but something fascinating also happened. Doctors believe that the sperm she ingested traveled to her reproductive organs through her stab wounds, resulting in her unexpected pregnancy, the New York Post noted.
Notably, under normal circumstances, stomach acid is strong enough to quickly destroy sperm, rendering it nonviable. However, the medical team believes that the sperm somehow survived due to the girl’s malnourished state at the time of the attack, which lowered the acidity in her digestive system. This allowed the sperm to reach her uterus through the stab wounds and fertilize the egg.
The South African teen was just as bewildered by her unexpected pregnancy as her medical team. She noted changes in her body in the months leading up to the birth, but since she didn’t have a vaginal opening and hadn’t engaged in penetrative vaginal sex, she didn’t believe she was pregnant.
This is a wild story! Thoughts?
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