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

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.