Research suggests HIV-positive teens are more likely to get pregnant than their healthy peers

By Staff Writer

According to new research in the Journal of the American Medical Association, teenage and young adult women with HIV have higher incidents of pregnancy than their healthy peers. In addition, HIV-positive women have a greater risk for complications during pregnancy.

The study surveyed the records of 181 patients with HIV who were between the ages of 13 and 24 over a 12-year period. The researchers found that pregnancy rates were highest among teens who acquired the virus behaviorally, rather than during birth. These adolescents had five times the number of pregnancies compared to healthy peers, in addition to more premature births and spontaneous abortions.

The study authors suggest that these figures are alarming because HIV-positive teens already have increased health risks and because these findings suggest that HIV-infected teens continue to practice unsafe sexual behaviors.

It is estimated that 25 percent of teens in the U.S. will contract a sexually transmitted disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Statistics also suggest that adolescents with mental health disorders or a history of psychiatric hospitalizations have intercourse at an earlier age, have more unintended pregnancies and have more sexual partners than their peers.