Greek Teens Sexually Active by 14 Years of Age

Greek teens are becoming sexually active by the tender age of 14, while at the same time neglecting the use of condoms or other required methods of protection with undesirable results, shows research conducted by the Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology Clinic of Alexandra hospital. Doctors say that apart from their early sexual experiences, Greek teenagers tend to contract Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) more than their foreign coevals, when only a few years ago this percentage was well below the international average.

Although 78% of them state that they use condoms, only 42% use them regularly. The results are shocking: amongst 149 sexually active girls aged 13 to 19, 62 of them (42%) tested positive for one form of the HPV virus and another 30 tested positive for more than one form of it. “It is possible that they have more than one sexual partner” says the Clinic’s director Lina Michala to Greek newspaper “Kathimerini,” adding that “5% – 6% of teenagers from the age of 15 to 19 years have been infected by Chlamydia.”

In addition, according to research conducted by the Adolescent Welfare Unit of the Second Pediatric Clinic of Athens University Hospital based on 1538 school pupils in the Attica prefecture, 8.2% of them have unprotected sex and the same percentage of girls have taken the so called “morning after pill” at least once. “Grown up women seem to understand that the pill does not protect them from STDs. On the contrary, this is not the case when it comes to younger girls. It is not an exaggeration to say that they use the morning after pill as if it was candy,” specialists conclude.

The same research shows that while the majority of pupils have their first sexual experience at the age of 14, 5.7% of them have already experienced sex by 12 years old and 10.2% at the age of 13.