Doctors give DIY contraceptive jab to underage girls
UNDERAGE girls in Scotland are being given ‘DIY’ contraceptive jabs under plans to cut teen pregnancies.
Doctors have begun prescribing contraceptive injections women can administer themselves at home – with no age limit on who can obtain them.
The three-month jabs were approved for home use last year and are aimed at avoiding regular trips to clinics.
Doctors and nurses are allowed to prescribe contraception to girls below the age of consent – without their parents’ knowledge – from the age of only 13.
Critics described the latest move allowing underage girls to give themselves long-lasting injections at home – without the supervision of a medical professional – as ‘deeply disturbing’.
Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said: ‘Prescribing self-injectable contraceptives to schoolgirls is effectively giving them a licence to engage in illegal sexual activity and robbing them of the protection the law on the age of consent is intended to give.
‘It is deeply disturbing that parents could be left in the dark and know nothing about the high-stakes gamble being taken on the physical and emotional wellbeing of their daughters.
‘There is also the additional risk that girls will share the self-injectable product with their friends.’
The drug, Sayana Press, contains the hormone progesterone, which prevents pregnancy, but side effects can include headaches.
Patients are first shown how to inject themselves by sexual health nurses then sent home with a supply.
The jabs, which come in the form of small, pre-prepared, single-dose syringes, go just under the skin of the abdomen or the thigh.
Each injection lasts for around three months and women can be given supplies to last up to a year.
The majority of women taking long-lasting contra- ception in Scotland are over the age of consent.
But at least two health boards are allowing the jabs to be administered at home by underage girls.
Four boards – NHS Lothian, Tayside, Highland and Ayrshire and Arran – confirmed they prescribe the contraceptive for self-injection. NHS Highland and NHS Ayrshire and Arran said they did not limit the jab to over-16s. A spokesman for NHS Highland said: ‘Those under 16 are offered the full range of contraceptive options in keeping with the Act of Legal Capacity Act (Scotland) and guidance from the Faculty of Sexual & Reproductive Health.’
Dr Ruth Holman, consultant in sexual and reproductive health at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said: ‘We do not have an age restriction for Sayana Press, as it is decided on an individual basis.’
Four NHS boards said they were not prescribing the jab and the remaining three did not respond to the query.
The teenage pregnancy rate in Scotland in 2014 was 34.1 per 1,000 women, a decrease of 40.9 per cent but still higher than in most other northern and western European countries.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘It is for doctors, in consultation with their patients, to offer advice on contraception.
‘We support the provision of longer acting reversible contraception to women, where this is appropriate.’
‘High-stakes gamble’