Lwengo, Uganda. (News Of The South) – A three year old girl from Lwengo District (name withheld for confidentiality ) has the potential of theoretically becoming the youngest mother in the world after an unprecedented puberty cycle.
The girls has menstrual periods, has pubic hair and has developed breasts.
Parents of the young girl are in a dilemma.
“We thought that this was a usual abnormality among children. We applied local herbs thinking that it will quickly disappear but it did not,” the mother, Hadija Kobusingye said.
According to the mother the girl started developing breasts from as early as eight months old.
As the breasts continued to grow the mother took the girl to a clinic in Kyazanga town where one medical professional administered seven injections and assured the mother the problem would diappear.
“Instead of the breasts disappearing, the girl started developing pubic hair shortly after turning one year,” Kobusingye narrated.
When the girl reached two years she began menstruating.
“The first time I saw blood stains on her clothes I suspected she had been defiled but when I examined her, cleaned her and gave her another clean cloth, I still saw blood and realised it was flowing naturally out of her private parts,” Madina Nanjobe, the girl’s grandmother, said. “I then concluded that she was in her periods which alarmed us.”
The menstrual periods were erratic at first but for the las five months they have become regular and last for four days every month.
The family was then advised to see a specialised doctor in women’s health and reproductive issues and were referred to Dr Gonzanga Ssenyondo, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Eden Community Medicare Centre in Nyendo, Masaka Municipality.
After carrying out his medical investigations on the girl, Dr Ssenyondo said the girl has already developed signs of adolescence and appears biologically capable of conceiving if she engages in live sex with a man.
“According to history, this can be the youngest case from that of Brazil where an eight-year-old girl conceived,” Dr Ssenyondo advised the girl’s parents to protect her from possible defilement.
“Although she may become pregnant, she is still too small to keep a baby in her womb or even deliver it safely,” the doctor said.
Precautious puberty is the term used to describe her condition. “It means that the child has developed before her age. Usually we expect children to go into puberty at the age of between 12 and 14 although it can be a little earlier at around nine or 10.”
“At that age, the girl’s ovaries have started being active very fast. But this girl could also be developing pituitary tumor which is a some small organ in the brain. It is one of the systems with the hypothalamus which regulates reproductive development especially in females,” Dr Ssenyondo explained.
The girl was referred to Mulago, the national referral hospital in Kampala, for basic investigations like CT scan, and an MRI scan to look at her brain, hypothalamus and pituitary examination to ascertain whether there is no tumor.
Dr Ssenyondo stressed the need to carry out endoctrinological tests to examine the girl’s reproductive system, make detailed abdominal scan to find out how far her reproductive organs have developed and check whether there any infection or pathology because at times it may just be the ovaries which are acting very fast. He ruled out genetic disorders which he said has never occurred in the family.
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