Limiting The Health Consequences of Rape

-



In our world today, there seems to be an increase in the prevalence of rape more than before, although it might have been because of the increase awareness of ways out and increase reportings bringing up parts of the iceberg buried in water. Now everyone's tentacles are more sensitive to prevention and reporting of rapes, many thanks to various campaigns all over the world.


Rape like every other negative actions surely has its negative consequences, yet more on the person that was the victim than on the rapist. It's a matter of a few minutes of enjoyment for one and a life-time damage for the other. The major aspect of life that's so much affected in this damage is health. Health at all its levels: physical (body) mental (mind) and social (relationships) is usually gravely affected. The damages done is more grievous and likely to be on a long term effects if the case is not properly handled by a prompt report to a health facility or a facility that handles rape for example Mirabel center in Lagos. It is important therefore that we understand the possible health consequences of rape perhaps we will be able to raise more advocacies to prevent such consequences. 


Health implications of rape can be subsided into short term and long term categories. Short terms are those that surfaced days to months from the incidence while long terms are those within months to years of the incidence but enough to make a life long impact. 


Short term health implications of rape include;

  1. Sexually transmitted infections: Rape is a Sexual act and the risk for STI could be higher than in a normal consented sex because of the related force that can lead to trauma and higher risk of blood shedding apart from body fluid exchange during sex. Wide range of diseases can be transmitted from the rapist to the victim and even vice versa. Examples of these diseases include; HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, gonorrhea and any other body fluid borne infection. 

  2. Unwanted pregnancy: If the person raped is a Sexually matured lady, there's a risk of getting pregnant and could be worse for an underaged lady whose body is not ready to accommodate a baby. This brings physiological stress to the body, not to mention the implications on the mind of the young lady. 

  3. Physical injury: Injury from the attempts to escape the act or the one inflicted by the rapist(s) ranging from minor to major ones. 

  4. Death: We have had cases of those who died from rape. If this is not as a result of the number 3 above or from bleeding to death, then it could be due to overwhelming physiological responses to stress. Rape is perceived to the body as a threat and the body responds like it will to major frightening events, releasing many pathways of coping mechanism, some which can overwhelmingly lead to death. 

  5. Urinary tract infection: An act of rape is expected to be huriedly done and have about 95% chances of being unhygienic and the possibility of rough handling the female external genitalia may predispose to infection of the urinary tract which is very close to the vagina. 

  6. Unsafe abortion: This is common in a bid to avoid stigmatisation that rape brings and to avoid the social impact of carrying a pregnancy, a victim with or without her family's consent may want to opt for an abortion and doing it secretly without a specialist makes it unsafe with all the associated short term consequences. 

  7. Pelvic inflammatory disease: One thing leads to another, this can result from untreated or poorly treated sexually transmitted infections or from an unsafe arbortion. 


Let's talk about the long term health implications of Rape. The long term points are usually due to the aftermath of mishandled short term effects but more of mental and emotional implications. 


  1. Emotional and psychological Trauma (post traumatic stress disorder). The 5min event usually leaves a long last signature on the mind of the victim. The inability to let go of the incidence from the mind can affect the way the victim reacts to issues surrounding rape, the memory of the event or even a movie where a rape incident occurred.

  2. Personality disorder: This and other psychological factors could lead the victim to hating men and having marital failures. 

  3. Depression: This could be grievous and can lead to suicide attempts. 

  4. Infertility: As a result of mishandled pelvic inflammatory disease or unsafe arbortion. 


These consequences will have no power at all if rape victims are supported and if rape cases are reported early enough. With more advocacy and support groups out there, a rape victim should be more secured but we just need to know that we must involve a medical personnel, psychologists not left out while reporting. 

 

Thanks for reading. Kindly drop a comment. 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOW YOU CAN ENJOY SWEET FOOD WITHOUT MUCH SALT

-
Image
In 200level medical school, I had this room mate who was a good cook but her food seems saltless to my taste bud. Tolulope, now Dr Akinnimi Tolulope will cook nice food yet with as little salt and oil as possible. It was strange to me even though then I had a little knowledge of why I should reduce salt intake but I couldn't really comprehend the greatness of its importance.  Looking back now, with so much medical knowledge I have gained over 8 years ago, I must say that my room mate was wiser then. You see, one thing about habit changing is that it could look strange to you and others at first but when you keep at it, it becomes your character. Reduction of salt in diet can become a part of you. Wait, salt is very important, yes, very very impotant. Salt is used for preserving food and to prevent food spoilage, we also use it more importantly to add taste to our food. Salt (table salt) contains sodium and chlorine. It is this sodium content that we need to watch, since we cannot s...
Read more

INDOOR CLEANING: Better Approach.

-
Image
  INDOOR CLEANING: Better Approach.  …… Let's start with a story…... Mrs. Alabi got home from a three-day business trip on a Friday evening, and she suddenly realized that the next day won't be for resting as she had thought. The sitting room was like it had just hosted a party involving people with different personalities. She could see open books and magazines on the chairs, clothes, plates, cups and shoes scattered about and at this time, she could only imagine what the kitchen would be like. She’s a mum of two kids of preschool age and a wife to a ‘work from home’ Man who cares little about home arrangement and cleanliness just like some men do.  How will Mrs Alabi enjoy her weekend despite all she met at home? Introduction: Yes! it's an opportunity to write again after a very long break. Right about now, you will be reading about something almost all of us do daily, well, except for the big bosses and the older generation. We all clean, sweep and make efforts to tid...
Read more

what you may not know about cervical cancer

-
Image
Happy new year readers, it shall be a fruitful year for all of you by God's grace. Now do you all know that January is cervical cancer awareness month? what it means then is that this month, i shall be doing more writings on cervical cancer this month. For today, let us understand some salient issues on cervical cancer. the cervix is the neck of the womb, that area where your  "g spot" is located, the area between the vaginal below and the uterus above. you can study the picture below. Cancer however is an unwanted growth that can spread to other part of the body, very dangerous and deadly. salient truths you may not know include; 1. Cervical cancer is real. 2. It is caused by a virus (human papiloma virus) transmitted via sexual intercourse. 3. It is the only sexually transmitted disease that cannot be prevented by condom. 4. Men can be infected too. 5. There are potent vaccines against the virus. 6. Children can be vaccinated against the virus, both male...
Read more