Childhood trauma and dissociation among women with genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder

Abstract

Objective

Causes such as childhood trauma, negative attitude about sexuality, inadequate sexual knowledge and education, relationship problems, and unconscious motivation are reported about psychosexual development in the etiology of genito-pelvic pain/penetration disorder (GPP/PD). There are few studies that focus directly on research etiology of GPP/PD and use structured scales. The aim of this study was to research childhood trauma and dissociation forms among women with GPP/PD.

Patients and methods

Fifty-five women with GPP/PD according to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and 61 healthy women with no complaints of sexual function as a control group, in the age range of 18–60 years, were included in this study. Sociodemographic data form, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-28), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), and Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire (SDQ-20) were administered to all participants.

Results

Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect scores, which comprise the subgroups of CTQ, were found high among women with GPP/PD compared with the control group (p=0.003, p=0.006, p=0.001). While a significant difference between the two groups’ SDQ scores was obtained (p=0.000), no significant difference was detected between the two groups’ DES scores (p=0.392).

Discussion

The results evoke the question are genitopelvic pain conditions, vaginismus and dyspareunia, that cannot be explained with a medical cause and that cause penetration disorder, a kind of dissociative symptom prone to develop in some women with childhood psychogenic trauma.

Keywords:

• dyspareunia
• sexual phobia
• abuse
• sexual dysfunction
• intercourse
• avoidance

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.