The American Medical Association (JAMA Internal medicine) has just published a study in which it reveals that one in 16 American women has not experienced a first consensual sexual intercourse. Researchers have wondered about the negative effects of such trauma on long-term health.
In Europe, about 2% of young women report having had non-consensual first sexual intercourse. In France, a French Public Health study revealed in 2016 that they were 1.7% to have been forced for their first time. In the United States, they are much more numerous: 6.5% according to this recent study.
13,000 women between the ages of 18 and 44 were interviewed in a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the period 2011-2017. As a result, 6.5% of women reveal that they did not consent during their first sexual intercourse.
Many health implications
The study also reveals the type of coercion experienced by the women interviewed. The largest number of them (56.4%) received verbal pressure, 46.3% were kept against their will, 25.1% received additional physical violence, 22% were forced to drink alcohol or drugs, 16% experienced their first sexual intercourse under the threat of a breakup.
The health outcome manifests itself in more unwanted pregnancies, more abortions, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease and ovulation problems, the study points out. That’s not to mention the mental issues that can arise from it, as well as general health issues.
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