Colombian woman hospitalised after using potato as contraceptive

A 22-year-old Colombian woman was hospitalised after trying to use a potato as a form of contraception, it has emerged. The unnamed woman began to suffer in pain after the tuber germinated inside her.

The woman was complaining of abdominal pains when she sought medical help, the New York Daily News reports. She told doctors: "My mom told me that if I didn't want to get pregnant, I should put a potato up there, and I believed her."

The newspaper says the potato had been inside her body for around two weeks. The pain was caused by the tuber germinating inside her and beginning to grow roots.

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It has now been removed and doctors say there should be no lasting ill effects for the young woman.

Colombia has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Latin America, the paper says. Each year, about 9 per cent of the country's teenagers become pregnant.

The Colombian Reports website observes that the young woman's ignorance shows "a concerning lack of education for young people" despite sexual education being obligatory in the country since the 1990s.

The site says Colombia is a "macho society" in which girls are "often pressured into having unsafe sex" and blames this for the high level of teen pregnancies.