Doctors are investigating a teen pregnancy with no clear explanation following the report a unique case involving a 15-year-old girl from Lesotho who went to the hospital complaining of stomach pain. Unexpectedly, tests showed the girl was nine months pregnant.

The doctors discovered the girl didn?t have a vaginal opening, a rare birth defect called distal vaginal atresia and that affects 1 in 4,000 to 10,000 newborn girls. They said the condition, in principal, should have made it impossible for the teen to have become pregnant without the aid of technologies like in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The puzzled medics questioned the girl on how she became pregnant and learned that nine months prior she had attended hospital for a stab wound to her stomach region shortly after giving oral sex.

She told a nurse she had been attacked by her ex when he found her performing the sex act on her new boyfriend. The report, published by the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology quoted medics as believing that sperm travelled from her stomach to her reproductive organs via the stab wounds, leading conception.

But one question remained unanswered. Stomach acid usually kills sperm, however, doctors believe her malnurished state during the period of the stabbing most likely enables the sperm to survive. They explained that malnutrition reduces stomach acid, and this had created the bizarre opportunity for the swallowed sperm to reach her uterus via the knife wound.

The doctors said the final piece of evidence that helped rule out what they termed a ?more miraculous conception? was that the baby boy, born weighing 2.8kg, grew up to resemble his father, the man the girl was intimate with before the attack.

Further interviews with the girl revealed that she was aware she had no vagina after ?disappointing attempts at conventional intercourse? and as a result preferred oral sex.

She also detailed that in months before giving birth she had been worried about the increasing size of her abdomen but, given she didn?t have a vagina, ?did not believe she was pregnant?.

Distal vaginal atresia is a rare abnormality of the female reproductive tract in which the vagina is closed or absent. The distal vagina may be replaced by fibrous tissue and the condition is often not diagnosed until a girl fails to begin having periods at puberty. Although it is a congenital disorder, potential genetic causes of distal vaginal atresia are still unknown (Saturday Vanguard, but headline rejigged)

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