IT'S not just boys who have sex on their minds all the time. More girls, some as young as primary school pupils, are experimenting with multiple partners and getting addicted to sex, say counsellors and social workers.

At 15, Mindy has slept with more than 50 men. She met most of them at clubs and took them home, while her parents slept in the next room.

After she openly admitted she was having sex, her parents took her to the DSC Clinic run by the Department of STI (Sexually Transmitted Infections) Control in Kelantan Lane. Their intent was not to stop her but to make sure she was protecting herself with contraceptives.

After that, she continued to visit the clinic on her own whenever she contracted new sexually transmitted infections.

According to Dr Tan Hiok Hee, head of the DSC, more than 500 teenage girls - some as young as 10 - were diagnosed with infections in 2006, a three-fold increase from five years ago.

One reason girls have sex at a younger age, he says, is that they generally attain 'sexual maturity' earlier. They also tend to have sex with older men.

Many have unprotected sex on the spur of the moment, in public places such as the beach, parks and toilets, say counsellors.

According to a survey of 3,844 secondary school students conducted by the Health Promotion Board in 2006, the average age a teenager here starts having sex is 15.

Most of the girls interviewed said they did it to get rid of the 'uncool' stigma of remaining a virgin.

Adilah, 17, first had sex with her 16-year-old boyfriend last year at an HDB stairwell in Bukit Batok. 'Some of my friends told me that it was enjoyable and that made me curious. I was the last one to try it,' she says.

Her relationship ended two months later when her parents found love bites on her neck.

Others are like Huifang, who made out with her boyfriend on their first Valentine's night out together. She was 17 and he, 16. They were both insatiably curious.

'It's like seeing a chocolate bar on the top shelf that's hard to reach. So you can't help but want to try it. But after eating it, you realise that it's not as nice as what you thought,' she recalls. They broke up nine months later.

Other girls see sex as a 'postlude' to romance and a testament of love for their boyfriends.

Zayna gave in to her boyfriend, who was eight years older, when she was 13. Less than four months into the relationship, he started asking her for sex every day.

Now 16, she says: 'I did it because I loved him. He also convinced me that he would marry me and not abandon me.' But she eventually left him when he started being abusive.

After a disillusioning first encounter, some begin to see sex as a casual commodity to exchange for money, say counsellors.

There was this case of a teenage girl who made $500 an hour sleeping with her clients. Mr Noel Tan, co-founder of Sanctuary House, which provides support for those with unwanted pregnancies, says: 'Her reasoning was: 'I sleep with my boyfriend for free, why not with other people for money? It's good money'.'

Mr Yusof Ismail, who is chief executive of Ain Society, a voluntary welfare organisation which works with youth at risk, recounts a similar case where a 14-year-old girl had sex with a man she met online in exchange for a new cellphone.

She later became a weekend prostitute. The man became her pimp and paid her a flat rate of $2,000 a week for her services.

'She hated it whenever she had her period because she could not earn money. She would even get a friend from Indonesia to buy her tablets to stop her from menstruating,' he relates.

When she was found out and placed in a girls' home, she was unremorseful. She resolved to return to prostitution once she got out. She also refused to study because she already knew how to earn 'fast money'.

But counsellors warn that sexually active girls have much to lose.

At 15, Norlina was abandoned by her boyfriend after he found out she was pregnant. 'I was very shocked and scared. I was at a loss and didn't dare tell my parents,' she relates.

But her mother found out after overhearing her conversation with a friend and insisted that she abort the baby. By the time Norlina made up her mind to do so, she was already six months pregnant.

Like Norlina, more girls are choosing abortion as a way out of unwanted pregnancies. In 2006, more than 1,300 teenage girls had an abortion, up by over 100 cases from the previous year. Of these, 19 were performed on girls under the age of 15, according to the Health Ministry.

Gynaecologists note that some of these girls often get pregnant again and end up on the operating table again. However, it is difficult to keep track of those who abort repeatedly as they often change doctors or hospitals.

But gynaecologists warn that repeated abortions can cause serious health problems. Dr Kenneth Wong, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist from the OBGYN Centre, says: 'Repeated abortions can lead to inflammation of the wound cavity, making it harder to conceive in future; or excessive thinning of the womb lining, which may lead to a placenta getting too deeply implanted in a subsequent pregnancy.

'During childbirth, mothers with such abnormal placentas frequently require surgery and have higher risks of complications such as excessive bleeding, which may require a life-saving hysterectomy or end in the mother's death.'

But knowing all that has not stopped Norlina, now 20. After her abortion, she continues to have casual sex. 'But I insist on using protection now as I do not want to get pregnant again,' she says.

Note: Names of the girls have been changed to protect their identity

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Mar 22, 2008.