GP: Women disclosing serious physical injuries due to sexual acts by partners

The GP raised concerns about how 'very rough sex' s impacting some patients.

WARNING: Some readers may find the following report upsetting

Young women are facing serious physical injuries including incontinence due to sexual acts by partners imitating pornography, a rural GP has warned.

Dr Madelaine Ní Dhálaigh called on doctors to discuss the consequences of some acts which have become normalised in recent years.

She described how “over the last 25 years, I’ve had many women disclose their experience of sexual violence to me in the practice”.

She noticed “a very particular spike in disclosures” during the covid-19 lockdowns. 

She raised concerns about how “very rough sex” is impacting some patients now. 

In one case, a young woman struggled to walk normally after sexual engagement with her partner, while another had bruising around her genital area.

Dr Ní Dhálaigh, a GP in Roscommon, warned of potential long-term internal injury in particular from anal sex for women. 

“As we know a woman’s pelvic floor is completely configured in a different way to men’s,” she said. 

"Damage can lead to faecal incontinence in later life, she explained.

A similar warning was given in the British Medical Journal in 2022 when two NHS doctors warned “increased rates of faecal incontinence and anal sphincter injury have been reported in women who have anal intercourse”.

Dr Ní Dhálaigh urged doctors at the Irish Medical Organisation’s AGM to have these conversations when necessary.

“We have to raise this with parents. For years we’ve been telling them about the problems of violent gaming but we haven’t specifically spoken about pornography,” she said.

She added: “It’s very easy to blame parents, but I think we are the people in authority, we’re the people who have the chance to speak to legislators.” 

She has seen parents “so upset” when they bring “a traumatised child” for treatment. 

“They are up against this multi-billion dollar industry,” she said.

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One parent brought in a teenage boy seeking mental health assistance as he was so distressed by violent sexual activity he saw accidentally online.

The influence of pornography on young men and women due to how easy it is to find online was also discussed by Ruth Breslin, director at the Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute.

She warned children’s cartoons and gaming characters are used by pornography websites to attract young customers.

“I think older teenagers say they went looking for it, because they heard pornography is the place to learn about sex and how to do good sex,” she said.

“But in the case of younger children, it is much more likely they are targeted, that they are stumbling across it.” 

There is evidence “to suggest that the porn trade will use all sorts of techniques”, she said.

“There’s even some evidence they have studied things like the common key-stroke errors made by children, the common spelling mistakes that children will make in typing in their interests,” she said.

“That will then direct that child to essentially pornographic content.

"The jury is no longer out, there is a direct connection between the consumption of pornography, particularly problematic consumption, and the perpetration of violence against women and girls.” 

The third speaker at Friday’s event was secondary school teacher Eoghan Cleary.

He created a gender studies programme to allow older teens space to talk about these challenges, after being surprised by “the level of misogynistic chat going on” in classrooms.

The eight to 10 week module covers mental health, body image, pornography and sexual interactions among other issues.

- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.