In 1939, in a small village in a remote area of Peru, Lina Medina became what historians consider the youngest mother in the world at the age of 5. Although hard to believe, doctors determined that Lena was physically able to conceive due to a rare condition known as precocious puberty.
Much of what surrounds the young girl's pregnancy remains unknown today, and her condition has puzzled doctors and attracted public attention over the last century.
Lena and her children
Pregnancy of Lena Medina
When Lena's parents noticed their daughter's bulging abdomen, it was early spring. One of nine children, the family lives in one of the poorest villages in Peru, fearing she has a tumor or other deadly disease.
They rushed her to the nearest hospital in Pisco – driving for two hours on bumpy roads in the Peruvian countryside.
After a doctor's examination, it was determined that the cause of Lena's enlarged stomach was not cancer - she was in the 7th month of pregnancy. Based on her birthday in September, it was determined that Lena was pregnant when she was 4 years old.
News of a five-year-old girl's pregnancy in Peru began to spread around the world, newspapers and journalists across the country asked to interview her, and some scientific institutions wanted to record her birth for scientific purposes. However, Lena and her family adamantly did not want to be part of the international attention.
Just a few weeks after doctors discovered her pregnancy, Lena gave birth to a baby boy by caesarean section on May 14, 1939.
Her small size does not allow for a natural birth, but the baby's delivery is successful and safe. The baby was named Geraldo, named after Dr. Gerardo Lozada, who was the supervising doctor in charge of Lena's case.
Front-page headlines around the world read: "Five-and-a-half-year-old mother and baby reportedly doing well". Doctors around the world are trying to study and understand how a four-year-old girl gets pregnant and succeeds.
After giving birth, Lena took the baby back to their village, where they lived a largely normal life. The doctor who visited her postpartum determined that Geraldo was a "completely normal" baby with "higher than normal intelligence".
In the first few years of baby Gerardo's life, he was taught to believe that Lena was his sister – not his mother. But when Lena was 15, he discovered that his sister was his mother.
Precocious puberty
When doctors delivered Lena, they confirmed that despite her young age, her reproductive organs were fully mature. This genetic disorder, known as precocious puberty, causes a child's body to develop and become an adult before the girl is 8 years old or the boy is 9 years old.
Precocious puberty affects one in every 10,000 children, affecting girls almost 10 times more often than girls. There is no known cause for this condition, but today the treatment for precocious puberty is to inject children with synthetic hormones to slow the progression of puberty.
In Lena's case, there were reports that she had been menstrualizing since she was very young – some said it was 8 months old, while others reported coming from the age of 3.
Doctors determined that she had begun to develop breasts, bone growth earlier, and hips wider than children her age. These medical reports helped confirm that Lena's condition was actually real, although many believed it was fabricated.
Who is the father of the child?
Despite much attention and speculation surrounding Lena's pregnancy, there are several unknowns to her story, including who the father of the child is. Lena was sexually abused or raped, but there has been no indication who may have committed the crime, which led to the pregnancy of the four-year-old.
Lena never told doctors and authorities who made her pregnant; Because of her young age, she may not know who her father is. However, Lena's father, Tibro, was arrested for the incident.
Lena and his son
He denied raping his daughter and was later released without evidence or statements to substantiate the crime. To this day, there are no more clues as to who raped Lena, but some speculation points to an attack in her village, which remains unconfirmed.
Avoid media attention
In the years following Lena's pregnancy when she was young, countless media outlets and newspapers tried to provide large sums of money to Lena's family to participate in interviews about the situation. However, Lena's family repeatedly rejected these offers, asking for privacy.
However, medical journals were able to obtain and publish several photos of Lena during her pregnancy. These records were later acknowledged by pediatric endocrinologists who study precocious puberty today.
While some believe that the pregnancy was a fabricated hoax, her condition has been confirmed first-hand by medical experts and the doctor in charge of Lena's case.
Lina Gerardo later life
Although Gerardo grew up living a healthy life, he died of bone marrow disease at the age of 40.
Lena continues to live a quiet life, working as a secretary for the doctor who once delivered her birth. She eventually married again with a man named Raul Hurado, and Lena gave birth to another son in her 30s. It's unclear if Lena is still alive, as she has been out of the public eye. She should be in her 80s.
Lena and her husband
While awareness of precocious puberty has increased since the 2030s, Lena's case still attracts curiosity and attention around the world, even though her case is clearly the result of sexual assault.
Nearly 100 years later, Lena Medina is still the youngest mother in history.