Resumen

PELAEZ MENDOZA, Jorge  y  JUNCAL HERNANDEZ, Virginia. Sexual abuse of girls and teenagers: Ten-year experience. Rev Cubana Obstet Ginecol [online]. 2009, vol.35, n.1. ISSN 0138-600X.

We defined the sexual abuse as every act in which immature and dependent children and teenagers of both sexes are involved in sexual activities that are not truly understood by them and for which they are unable to give their consent in a responsible way. OBJECTIVE: to study the behavior of diagnosis and epidemiological characteristics of sexual abuse victims by age in girls (0-10 years) and teenagers (11-19 years) in a ten-year period at the Infant and Young Gynecological Service of "Luis Pasteur" polyclinics. METHODS: we carried out a retrospective, longitudinal and descriptive study in which we reviewed all the medical histories of 6 440 girls and teenagers seen at this service from January 1st, 1997 to December 31st, 2006 and the final sample comprised 32 patients diagnosed as sexual abuse cases. The studied variables were reasons to go to the gynecologist, findings at physical exam, existence or absence of sexually-transmitted infections, type of abuse, characteristics of the perpetrator, and report to the police. RESULTS: we found the highest abuse incidence in girls (1,15%), being 0,5% the global incidence. The highest gross incidence was observed in teenagers with 24 cases. Chronic sexual abuse prevailed in 100% of studied girls and 50% of teenagers. The most common cause to go to the gynecologist was feeling genital infection symptoms; sexual abuse and sexually-transmitted infections were very much correlated; sexual abuse was only found in 6 cases as reason to go to the gynecologist´s. Either a relative or an acquaintance was the sexual abuse perpetrator in most of cases but the amount of reports to the police was low. CONCLUSIONS: sexual abuse is poorly known and screened in our context, so it is important to encourage its diagnosis and screening since it brings about serious effects for the mental and reproductive health of girls and adolescents in general.

Palabras clave : Sexual abuse; girls and adolescents; reproductive health; sexually-transmitted infection; infant and young gynecology.

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