Some medical experts have warned that marriage could expose an underage female to psychological, gynaecological, physiological and social disorders.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos that underage marriage should be discouraged as it could endanger the lives of mother and child during pregnancy and childbirth.
NAN reports that any person less than 18 years is an underage.
A psychiatrist and Founder of the Pinnacle Medical Services, Ikoyi, Lagos State, Dr. Maymunah Kadiri, said that underage marriage could ruin a female’s life.
Kadiri said: “Parents should not, for any reason, subject a child to early marriage.
“The psychological impact is enormous and multi-faceted.
“At that age, a child still looking up to some people as role models is married off to a strange environment to take up roles of a wife and mother.
“It will result in identity crisis and other chain reactions.”
Kadiri said that underage marriage caused hormonal changes, anxiety, trauma and anxiety as well as emotional stress.
According to her, girls will not be able to cope with marital and maternal issues.
She attributed domestic violence to underage marriage.
She added: “The girls are most likely to be abused, talked down on or beaten.
“These girls are made to believe that the violence is excusable.
“Even if they want to talk, they do not have the exposure and willpower to go about it right.
“They become subservient and accept their fate.
“Those that may not contain it resort to committing murder, manslaughter or suicide.”
A midwife, Anne Effiong, told NAN that the underage were physiologically under-developed and had an increased risk of maternal death.
Effiong said: “They are not developed for womanhood.
“The vagina and cervix are small in size, inelastic and lack lubrication.
“The girls usually experience pain and torture during sexual intercourse.
“They also run a very high risk of complications in pregnancy and childbirth because their reproductive organs, pelvis and general bone structure are not yet fully developed.
“Often, they experience prolonged and obstructed labour.
“This can lead to haemorrhage or bleeding, severe infections and, in extreme cases, maternal death.”
Effiong said that such underage were also predisposed to contracting infections such as gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes and HIV/AIDS from their much older spouses.
She added that such females were likely to have children with low birth weight, inadequate nutrition and anaemia.
Also, a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Dr. Oliver Ezechi, noted that pregnancy-related complications such as Vesicovagina Fistula occurred in women who married very early.
Ezechi said: “There is a connection between the bladder and vagina.
“There is bladder stressor, a kind of lock.
“It is only when you are pressed that the muscles allow you to urinate.
“Usually, in underage, the genital tract is not well developed.
“During labour, the head of the baby comes in and is jammed in the pelvis.
“Because the bladder is just above the baby’s head, when the head of the baby keeps pressing there for long, the blood supply to that area is cut off.
“Once blood does not get to a particular tissue, it dies off, leaving a hole and allowing urine to leak out at will.”
Ezechi, also a researcher at Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, told NAN that early exposure to sex could also predispose women to the Human Papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer.
According to him, the virus is predominantly sexually transmitted.
He said: “In the cervix of a woman, there is an area we call the transformation zone.
“It is very fragile.
“Majority of cervical cancer cases occur there.
“When one is young, this area, which is close to the opening of the uterus, comes out, but as one grows, it withdraws or moves into the birth canal.
“So, at an early age, if you have sex with someone who has HPV, you can easily get infected.
“The virus that attacks the cervix will have sufficient time to cause harm and may eventually develop into cancer.”
Dr. K.C. Ahuchogu, a psychologist, said that underage marriage prevented females from accomplishing their dreams.
Ahuchogu said: “When a female marries as a child, her innocence and childhood are lost.
“She is hindered from attaining her goals.
“Most of the time, her education is aborted.
“This further gives rise to ignorance and encourages the cycle of poverty.”
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