Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder After Genital Medical Procedures

Abstract

The presentation outlines research conducted on 500 women by the author which demonstrated that genital medical procedures could be sufficiently stressful to induce Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).' This occurred in women who had been previously sexually traumatised and also in women who had had no apparent previous psychological stress. Factors which predisposed to the development of PTSD were shown to include: feelings of powerlessness and loss of control by the woman; lack of consent; lack of information; perceived lack of sympathy in the examiner; and the experience of physical pain. These factors are compared to the situation arising in sexual assault, sexual torture and circumcision. Preliminary findings of a comparative study of PTSD in circumcised men are described.

Mental health problems associated with female genital mutilation

“…3 The impact of FGM on social and psychological health is underresearched 4 - 9 and knowledge of the psychosocial consequences in a migration context is even scarcer. 10 - 12 Moreover, reports vary from high prevalence of trauma-related and other psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression, 4 , 13 to no mental health problems at all 14 or even positive feelings. 15 , 16…”

Circumcision of Infants and Children: Short-Term Trauma and Long-Term Psychosexual Harm

“…According to Menage [158], circumcised men who have become aware that their sexual dysfunction may be at least partially a consequence of having been circumcised during infancy or childhood, have reported feelings of helplessness, abuse, frustration, and of being violated. Moreover, as Bensley and Boyle (2001, p. 215) reported, "Psychological consequences as a result of…surgery are well recognized in the medical literature (Mc-Guire & Parkes [159]).…”