Ladies health issues after a sexual harassment

Ladies health issues after a sexual harassment

Ladies health issues after a sexual harassment

A new study shows that women can have persistent health problems for years after sexual harassment or workplace sexual assault.

High blood pressure, poor quality of sleep, symptoms of anxiety and depression were discovered by the researchers after medical examinations of about 300 women.

The results are in light of the MeToo and TimesUp movements, in which a growing number of women are talking about their experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault, according to a press release published online so far (October 3) at JAMA Internal Medicine. , currently under review and presented at the annual meeting of the American Menopause Society (NAMS) in San Diego on Friday, October 5th.

"There is a clear correlation between a woman's experience of sexual harassment or sexual assault and its negative impact on her life, whether for her physical or mental health," said Dr. Maureen Sayres Van Niel, psychiatrist based in Cambridge Massachusetts and the chair of the Women's Committee of the American Psychiatric Association, who did not participate in the study.

"There is no doubt that the eradication of sexual violence will improve women's health and mental health," he said.

Continuing health problems
New discoveries are not totally irrelevant. Researchers have known for years that there is a link between women who are victims of sexual assault and harassment and the health problems that result. However, to date, many studies have been based on self-reported symptoms, which means that women have no health problems they did not know.

The research team decided to evaluate each woman in the new study at the medical level. Finally, they recruited 304 women from the Pittsburgh area aged 40 to 60 years. None of them was a smoker. Smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease whose symptoms overlap, and many of these women were sought after in the study.

According to the findings, 58 women (19%) were victims of sexual harassment at work and 67 (22%) reported having been sexually harassed. Thirty (10%) of the women reported being harassed and sexually assaulted.

Women reporting having been sexually abused were three times more likely to experience symptoms of depression and more than twice as much anxiety and sleepless nights as women with insomnia compared to women who did not report sexual abuse. At the same time, women who reported being sexually harassed at work had more than twice the amount of high blood pressure and an 89% increase in sleep quality compared to women. You have not experienced any sexual harassment at work.

The researchers found that women who reported sexual harassment in the workplace were more likely to have a college education, but also had more financial difficulty than the rest of the group. We do not know why, but it is possible that these highly educated women have worked in predominantly male areas and are better informed about what constitutes sexual harassment, "said Rebecca Thurston, lead author of the study. The professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh and his colleagues participated in this study.

However, the results are correlated and researchers can not say for sure that sexual assault and harassment are harmful to health. In addition, the study had a relatively small sample, explained Van Niel at Live Science.

However, the results are a breakthrough in the study of women's health, Van Niel said. He adds that the study adds to the idea that stressful events such as sexual harassment and aggression can explain why women have twice as many women as men.

Women who have experienced unwanted sexual attention need to know that certain treatments can help them cope with the physical and mental health problems that can result from such experiences, Van Niel said.