Abuse: Sexual Abuse May Affect Health For A Lifetime

Sexual Abuse May Affect Health For A Lifetime: "More than 12 percent of the women and 5 percent of the men reported early sexual abuse. On average, the first experience of abuse occurred when the women were 16 years old and the men were 13.5 years old. Most of the respondents never received counseling for their experience.
Past sexual assault was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, arthritis and thyroid disease, Stein and Barrett-Connor found. The study results appear in the November/December issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
The findings varied by gender. In women, early sexual assault appeared to increase the risk of arthritis and breast cancer, with multiple abuse episodes increasing disease risk by two- to three-fold compared with a single episode. In men, early sexual assault appeared to increase the risk of thyroid disease.
Although this study resembles others that found adverse health effects of sexual abuse, Stein and Barrett-Connor did not find the associations between sexual abuse and obesity or headaches observed in other studies."