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.