For victims of sexual violence, recovery can take years

In her testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, Christine Blasey Ford stated that a sexual assault perpetrated several decades ago continued to define her life.

She stated that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had held her in a high school party more than 30 years ago (allegations alleged by Kavanaugh), but she continues to face anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, claustrophobia and fear of flying.

Research shows that the experience that she describes is not unusual. Victims of sexual violence often experience long-term physical and mental effects. A study published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine found that women victims of sexual harassment in the workplace often suffer lasting physical consequences, such as high blood pressure, while female victims of sexual assault are more likely to suffer mental consequences, such as persistent symptoms of anxiety and stress. depression. Both groups suffer from lack of sleep at the level of clinical insomnia.

"Exhibitions and experiences that can happen to us as girls and women can have a persistent impact in our lives," said Rebecca Thurston, one of the study's authors and professor of psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine. from the University of Pittsburgh.

The study does not prove that these incidents have any health effects, she warned, but there is a strong association between experiences of sexual violence and poor health outcomes.

The researchers analyzed data from 304 women aged 40 to 60, of whom 19% had a history of sexual harassment and 22% had a history of sexual assault. The researchers found that women who had been sexually assaulted were almost three times more likely to have symptoms of major depression and twice as likely to suffer from high anxiety.

Women victims of sexual harassment were twice as likely to suffer from hypertension and three times more likely to have high triglyceride levels. All of these factors are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, said Thurston, who is the leading cause of death among women.

The results were consistent even taking into account factors such as age, race, education and the use of drugs. The researchers did not ask when the incidents occurred, but national data show that the majority of victims of sexual violence were under 30 when they were assaulted.

"This shows that we must take into account not only the social and ethical issues of sexual assault and harassment, but also the potential implications for women's health," said Thurston.

In the United States, it is estimated that between 40% and 75% of women have been victims of sexual harassment in the workplace and more than one in three women have been victims of sexual violence.

National spotlights on Kavanaugh in recent weeks have brought these memories to the fore for many survivors. The National Sexual Assault Hotline reported a 338% increase in traffic on the day of Ford's hearing. The next day was the busiest day in the 24-year history of the hotline.

Melanie Sachs, executive director of Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, said last week that the number of calls to the helpline in Maine has been increasing for about a year. She attributes this increase to the #MeToo movement.

Previous research has shown that many victims of sexual violence endure flashbacks, sleep problems and emotional detachment. Post-traumatic stress disorder is common, as is depression, substance use disorder and suicide ideation.

The recently published study also examined the physical effects of sexual violence, which are less frequently studied.

Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology at Harvard University, co-authored a 2008 study showing that sexual harassment at work was associated with high systolic blood pressure (the highest reading figure). ) among low-income women. "When I published our study 10 years ago, there was virtually no work on the subject," said Krieger. "And that has not changed much."

The new study focuses on a group of wealthier women, mostly white. This could have led the authors to underestimate the prevalence of the problem, said Krieger, as low-income women and women of color report higher rates of sexual harassment.

The findings suggest that physicians should consider various factors in women's health. "It's not all about diet and exercise," Thurston said. "We need to ask questions about the experiences of women. These are critical. "

Just as it has been shown that racism affects a variety of health problems, sexual harassment could have the same kind of health effects.

But more research is needed to understand how it works, said Carol Jordan, executive director of the University of Kentucky's Bureau of Policy Studies on Violence Against Women. It is clear that sexual violence affects women's health "but it is extremely difficult to examine this impact," she said.

A study she co-authored in 2006 found that female victims of spousal violence were more likely to die of breast cancer than other women. The abuse did not cause cancer, but violent partners often prevented women from going to the doctor. As a result, they have often been diagnosed at advanced stages of cancer, when the treatment is less effective.

Understanding that can help doctors and policymakers create better interventions, Jordan said.

For people who have experienced sexual assault or harassment, the results are one more reason to ask for help, Thurston said. "Women will often deny the importance of their experiences and think they are not serious enough to be important," she said. "But they really matter."

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