Health
Researchers have found that physical and sexual abuse of children affects when girls begin their first period. One of the study's authors, Professor Renee Boynton-Gerret from Boston University School of Medicine, found that the likelihood of an earlier start to the first period (before the age of 11) girls who have been physically and/or sexually abused are 49 per cent higher.
Boynton-Gerret made this conclusion on the basis of a large-scale study involving 68,505 women. Some of them were abused as children.
However, according to the results of the study, we should rather talk about disorders that lead to a shift in the age of the first menstruation in principle. The fact is that sexual and physical abuse in childhood can simultaneously increase the risk of a later onset of the first menstruation (after 15 years) by 50 percent.
“As part of our study, we were able to simultaneously identify both the risk of later menstruation and the risk of earlier menstruation if the girl was abused,” explains Professor Boynton-Gerret. “However, further research is needed to study the consequences depending on the nature of violence, its duration and severity.”
Obviously, American scientists did not need such a study to prove the very fact that sexual and physical abuse in childhood has a negative effect on health (in particular, mental) girls. No one disputes this fact.
In fact, in recent years, scientists have found an increasingly strong relationship between early onset of first menstruation and an increased risk of developing various diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases diseases, metabolic disorders, cancer and depression. At the same time, a later first menstruation can lead to reduced bone mineral density and the same depression.
As a result, according to Boynton-Gerret, the results obtained will help doctors calculate the possible risks associated with various diseases in girls who have been sexually and physically exposed violence. At the same time, this understanding will contribute to the development of a number of much more effective clinical measures that will help specialists improve psychological and other methods of treatment girls like that.
The need for such studies is confirmed by statistical data, according to which, unfortunately, the level of violence against children is very high. We can only believe that the results of these studies will also be applied in our country, where physical and sexual abuse of children has become alarming.
