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. 2018 Feb 23:14:641-646.
doi: 10.2147/NDT.S151920. eCollection 2018.

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

Beliz Özen  1 , Y Özay Özdemir  1 , E Emrem Beştepe  1
Affiliations

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

Beliz Özen et al. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. .

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: abuse; avoidance; dyspareunia; intercourse; sexual dysfunction; sexual phobia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

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