Just as you always suspected . . . the price of the Christmas office party can be high. Apocryphal tales of couples brought to the brink and working relationships wrecked now find substance in a new study by specialists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

They found that more people seek abortions and HIV tests in the first few months of the year than at any other time. Treatment for sexually-transmitted diseases rises and, nine months later, in September, the birth rate peaks. The rate for births outside marriage is even higher.

The authors also noted that condom sales peak in the weeks running up to the festive season.