The Hidden Injury After Sexual Violence - Pelvic Floor
Sexual violence is about control and power, not sexual gratification. Perpetrators of sex crimes willfully and intentionally inflict pain on the people they victimize. This pain is physical, mental, social and emotional.
The unwillingness to participate in the crime causes immediate, short-term and, sometimes, long-term effects for us. Some of the effects can be seen by the naked eye, while others need increased medical intervention to detect and properly treat. In today’s society, “proof” is needed and utilized to medically treat injuries.
In instances where there isn’t “proof” or a standard [forensic] process to search for “proof”, we can suffer from injuries for years before the root cause is identified and can be properly treated. This is no more true than with our pelvic floors. Tissue, nerves and organs may be damaged due to a sex crime but overlooked and the possibility never mentioned.
Issues such as incontinence, pain while urinating or evacuating our bowels, imbalance while walking or trying to stand up, constantly having to wipe after evacuating our bowels, hemorrhoids, or pain during consensual sexual activities can all exist due to damage caused by the sexual violence we’ve endured. And, this damage could be easily detected with an MRI or x-ray being done during the medical exam that [some] victims of sex crimes undergo.
Unfortunately, we’re not educated on the possible harms done to us and medical professionals only go by what they can see [and prove] - not assessing for possibility of unseen damage. So, many of us are left with real harm done to our bodies that isn’t detected until the symptoms appear and progress due to neglect.
This is very sad, because our pelvic floors are critical for our overall strength, mobility, and sexual health. It literally can impact the quality of life. So, a pelvic floor that’s in poor health puts any victimized person at a greater disadvantage and can possibly delay our respective healing and recovery journeys. Experiencing issues with the pelvic floor must be taken seriously and shouldn’t be ignored.
It’s important to not let any doctor dismiss related issues with an excuse such as increasing age or the need to lose weight. As survivors, we must advocate for ourselves if we want to receive proper medical care and treatment from harm caused by sexual violence. It’s okay to ask for an x-ray or MRI (of the pelvic region) to ensure that there isn’t any internal damage that is causing issues now or may cause them in the future.
There are treatments such as physical therapies, weight training and exercises, diet changes and surgeries that can improve health, if not correct the issue(s). Gaining access to the right treatment is just a matter of understanding the issues and identifying the source with the help of a urogynecologist, urologist, colorectal surgeon, or physical therapist. Healing and recovery are possible and can be achieved, in part, to good physical health.
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