“Solely sure means sure” is greater than a slogan, and discussions on what that basically entails are extra pressing now than ever. In a world after #MeToo, it’s tempting to consider that the consent dialog is over, however it isn’t. Solely final yr, 1 in 3 European ladies reported having skilled sexual assault, underlining how important it stays to maintain talking about consent (European Union Company for Elementary Rights et al., 2024).
For a lot of survivors, the affect doesn’t finish with the assault itself. Regardless of no clear medical trigger, diffuse bodily signs can proceed to happen years after the occasion. Analysis has persistently linked sexual assault with somatic syndromes corresponding to persistent widespread ache (Ulirsch et al., 2014), and traumatic activation of the stress system can alter neurosensory processing in lasting methods (Brief et al., 2022).
Constructing on this proof, a brand new landmark research from the Danish DanFunD cohort immediately examined whether or not sexual assault will increase the danger of growing useful somatic dysfunction (FSD) – an umbrella analysis encompassing Purposeful Symptomatic Syndromes (FSSs) like power widespread ache (CWP), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and power fatigue, that trigger substantial incapacity with out identifiable natural causes (Burton et al., 2020; Jacobsen et al., 2025).
Sexual assault has lasting results, and this research asks whether or not these results embody a better threat of long-term useful somatic problems.
Strategies
The authors used information from a big Danish cohort research to research the lifetime historical past of sexual assault at baseline (n = 7493) and see the way it influences the danger for useful somatic dysfunction (FSD) in a 5-year follow-up (n = 4288). FSD signs had been clustered into cardiopulmonary, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and fatigue. Additionally they differentiated between single-organ and multiorgan FSD. Ten covariates had been chosen, together with organic intercourse, prior somatic illnesses, perceived stress.
Two important questions had been assessed:
- Query 1: Does sexual assault elevate your threat for useful somatic dysfunction?
- Query 2: Do survivors of sexual assault expertise a better frequency and/or extra extreme incident somatic signs than people not uncovered to sexual assault (i.e., extra signs, and/or worse ones)?
Outcomes
Query 1: Does sexual assault elevate your threat for useful somatic dysfunction?
The brief reply is sure.
- Unadjusted analyses confirmed clear hyperlinks between reporting sexual assault (SA) at baseline and the event of FSD over the 5-year follow-up.
- Adjusting for covariates solely strengthened the case, displaying that having skilled SA results in an elevated threat of growing FSD, FSS, in addition to single-organ FSD and CWP.
- Most intriguing is that they discovered a 6-fold elevated threat (RR 6.47) of growing multiorgan FSD. So, not solely does SA contribute to growing FSD and associated problems, nevertheless it additionally appears to lift one’s threat by fairly a big margin.
Query 2: Do sexual assault survivors expertise extra and/or worse signs?
Once more, the reply seems to be sure.
- Survivors of sexual assault (SA) reported a better frequency of signs throughout all 4 bodily clusters: common/fatigue, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, and cardiopulmonary.
- In comparison with these with out assault publicity, survivors of SA additionally had an as much as 20% larger threat of growing ache of their joints, gastrointestinal signs like belly ache and bloating, and overwhelming fatigue. These signs had been additionally typically reported as extra extreme.
The authors had been additionally within the query: does emotional misery make these bodily signs worse?
- Interplay analyses didn’t assist this.
- Baseline emotional misery didn’t average or amplify the SA-FSD connection – that means, the bodily dangers from trauma didn’t appear to be exacerbated by emotional state.
Sexual assault is related to long-term, typically excessive severity bodily symptom patterns that can not be absolutely accounted for by emotional misery alone.
Conclusions
Total, this research delivers a transparent message: sexual assault considerably raises the danger of useful somatic dysfunction (FSD) – spanning a number of bodily techniques and growing the general burden of signs. Within the authors phrases:
The outcomes recommend that the implications of sexual assault prolong throughout a number of organ techniques, reflecting multiorgan involvement quite than confinement to 1 organ system.
Whereas FSD signs are additionally a priority within the common inhabitants, this research highlighted that burden (together with the preliminary threat of improvement) is way larger in individuals who have been sexual assaulted. These conclusions stand in a protracted line of proof linking traumatic experiences – like sexual assault – to the later improvement of power ache (Bussières et al., 2023).
Traumatic experiences corresponding to sexual assault seem like linked with broader, multisystem useful signs later in life.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
This research tackles a important, well timed query with a population-based Danish cohort that cuts down on choice bias by spanning intercourse, age, and sociodemographics. The end result – useful somatic dysfunction (FSD) – is outlined utilizing the Bodily Misery Syndrome (BDS) framework (Petersen et al., 2020), with subtypes corresponding to power widespread ache (CWP) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) pooled to reinforce statistical energy (Petersen et al., 2020). The self-reports maintain up effectively, validated by clinician interviews in a subset. Complete confounder changes (e.g., intercourse, prior somatic illnesses, perceived stress), sensitivity analyses, sex-stratified outcomes, and a considerable pattern dimension additional improve the robustness of the findings and strengthen the impression of reliability.
Weaknesses
The pattern’s restriction to Danish residents fluent in Danish limits generalisability and variety. The sexual assault (SA) evaluation relied on solely two gadgets from the Cumulative Lifetime Adversity Measure (Carstensen et al., 2020), probably overlooking nuanced experiences past their concentrate on compelled contact or intercourse. Emotional misery, a variable which will play an necessary position within the relationship of SA and FSD, was measured solely at baseline, neglecting that it could be of fluctuating nature. The low 5-year follow-up response charge could overestimate FSD incidence, whereas the mounted timeline ignores SA timing, frequency and severity. BDS’s binary categorization (“bothered” vs not) may under-detect milder circumstances. The small male subsample precludes strong sex-specific insights, and symptom clustering quite than particular person evaluation displays energy constraints of the research. Notably, post-SA emotional responses had been unmeasured, introducing potential bias.
Total, the proof robustly hyperlinks sexual assault to useful somatic dysfunction, however methodological gaps in variety, measurement nuance, and longitudinal depth warrant replication in broader cohorts.
This research advantages from strong design and statistical energy, however is proscribed by measurements that lacked nuance and poor pattern variety.
Implications for apply
Coming again to the place we began: Consciousness and understanding of sexual assault remains to be urgently wanted. This research makes painfully clear that the penalties will not be solely psychological, however can even present up as a heavy, lengthy‑time period bodily burdens.
On the analysis aspect, the findings underline the necessity for bigger, extra numerous samples, together with extra males, and extra refined strategies of measurement. Future work ought to unpack totally different subtypes of useful somatic dysfunction and useful symptomatic syndromes, and discover their overlap with associated diagnoses corresponding to somatic symptom dysfunction. Additionally, extra work ought to be put into revealing the molecular foundation of those phenomena. Understanding the organic pathways underlying the emergence of problems following sexual assault is vital to enhancing care and exploring attainable protecting elements.
On the motion aspect, the message is equally clear: it isn’t sufficient to deal with the aftermath. There’s an pressing must deal with the foundation causes of sexual assault within the first place and to take a position significantly in prevention, safety, and trauma‑knowledgeable care. Victims shouldn’t be left alone and be gaslit into believing it’s “all of their heads”.
As addressed at first, 1 in 3 ladies has skilled some type of sexual assault. Even when it’s not you, it’s probably somebody near you. Elevating consciousness and fostering empathy is vital to shining a light-weight on this hidden epidemic – and our work to finish it.
One in three ladies experiences sexual assault. Lengthy-term bodily and psychological impacts of sexual assault demand higher analysis, prevention, and assist for survivors.
Assertion of pursuits
Jennifer Reif wrote the primary draft of this weblog and has no competing pursuits to declare. Perplexity.ai was used for language refinement and textual content movement enchancment.
Editor
Edited by Éimear Foley. AI instruments assisted with language refinement and formatting through the editorial part.
Hyperlinks
Main paper
Jacobsen, Sofie A., Petersen, Marie W., Wellnitz, Kaare B., Ørnbøl, Eva, Dantoft, Thomas M., Jørgensen, Torben, McLean, Samuel A., Frostholm, Lisbeth, & Carstensen, Tina B. W. (2025). Purposeful Somatic Problems in People With a Historical past of Sexual Assault. JAMA Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.3251
Different references
Burton, C., Fink, P., Henningsen, P., Löwe, B., Rief, W., & on behalf of the EURONET-SOMA Group. (2020). Purposeful somatic problems: Dialogue paper for a brand new widespread classification for analysis and scientific use. BMC Medication, 18(1), 34. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-1505-4
Bussières, A., Hancock, M. J., Elklit, A., Ferreira, M. L., Ferreira, P. H., Stone, L. S., Wideman, T. H., Boruff, J. T., Al Zoubi, F., Chaudhry, F., Tolentino, R., & Hartvigsen, J. (2023). Opposed childhood expertise is related to an elevated threat of reporting power ache in maturity: A stystematic evaluation and meta-analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 14(2), 2284025. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2023.2284025
Carstensen, T. B. W., Ørnbøl, E., Fink, P., Jørgensen, T., Dantoft, T. M., Madsen, A. L., Buhmann, C. C. B., Eplov, L. F., & Frostholm, L. (2020). Opposed life occasions within the common inhabitants—A validation of the cumulative lifetime adversity measure. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1717824. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1717824
European Union Company for Elementary Rights, European Institute for Gender Equality, & European Fee (Hrsg.). (2024). EU gender-based violence survey: Key outcomes: experiences of girls within the 27 EU Member States. Publications Workplace. https://doi.org/10.2811/6270086
Petersen, M. W., Schröder, A., Jørgensen, T., Ørnbøl, E., Dantoft, T. M., Eliasen, M., Thuesen, B. H., & Fink, P. (2020). The unifying diagnostic assemble of bodily misery syndrome (BDS) was confirmed within the common inhabitants. Journal of Psychosomatic Analysis, 128, 109868. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.109868
Brief, N. A., Tungate, A. S., Bollen, Okay. A., Sullivan, J., D’Anza, T., Lechner, M., Bell, Okay., Black, J., Buchanan, J., Reese, R., Ho, J. D., Reed, G. D., Platt, M. A., Riviello, R. J., Rossi, C. H., Martin, S. L., Liberzon, I., Rauch, S. A. M., Kessler, R. C., … McLean, S. A. (2022). Ache is widespread after sexual assault and posttraumatic arousal/reactivity signs mediate the event of latest or worsening persistent ache. Ache, 163(1), e121–e128. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.ache.0000000000002329
Ulirsch, J. c., Ballina, L. e., Soward, A. c., Rossi, C., Hauda, W., Holbrook, D., Wheeler, R., Foley, Okay. a., Batts, J., Collette, R., Goodman, E., & McLean, S. a. (2014). Ache and somatic signs are sequelae of sexual assault: Outcomes of a potential longitudinal research. European Journal of Ache, 18(4), 559–566. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1532-2149.2013.00395.x
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