According to an American study, these women say they have undergone one or more forms of restraint. All ethnic and social groups are concerned.
One in sixteen American women was not consenting during her first sexual encounter, according to a study that highlights the long-term negative effects of this "Trauma" about their health. If it is not consented, sexual intercourse, which implies penetration or not, can be likened to rape in one case and sexual abuse in another.
In the USA, "The #metoo movement revealed how often women are victims of sexual violence, but no recent study has assessed the prevalence of coercion during first sexual intercourse and its impact on health", write the researchers as an introduction.
Published Monday, Sept. 16, in a journal of the American Association of Medicine (JAMA Internal medicine), their study is based on a sample of more than 13,000 women aged 18 to 44, interviewed as part of a survey of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted between 2011 and 2017.
About 6.5% of women said they did not consent at the time of their first sexual intercourse, which extrapolated to the US population corresponds to more than 3.3 million women in this age group, report the authors. Either one woman out of sixteen.
The younger the women, the more exposed they are
These women report having experienced one or more forms of coercion: 56.4% were verbally pressured, 46.3% were held against their will, 25.1% were victims of violence, 22% were 16% of them were forced to drink or take drugs, and threatened with a break-up.
All ethnic and social groups are concerned, with a higher risk for black women, born outside the United States, poor and less educated. The main difference with consenting women at first intercourse is age-related: on average, non-consenting women were just over 15 years of age, compared to 17 for consenting women, and the man was much older: 27 years against 21.
"These forced sexual initiations seem linked to several health problems", report the authors of the study. Women who have been coerced at first intercourse appear to be more likely to have an unwanted pregnancy than consenting women, abort more, suffer more endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease and ovulation or menstruation problems.
Their general health is also worse, with more drug use or mental problems, say the authors of the study, advocating to strengthen public policies to fight against sexual violence. The term "rape" is never used in the study, although some of the situations that it addresses seem to fit this criminal definition.
