Different types of pain complaints have been mentioned as associated with sexual abuse. I have collected here studies which mention such pain complaints.
Walling et al. 1994 considered depression, anxiety and somatization in 64 women with chronic pelvic pain, 42 women with chronic headache, and 46 women without chronic pain complaints and found that "childhood sexual abuse was not significant in the prediction of any of the outcome variables, whereas childhood physical abuse was significant in the prediction of all three."
Goldberg et al.1999 studied facial pain, myofascial pain, and fibromyalgia. They have found a correlation with sexual and physical abuse and family alcohol dependence. Logistic regression showed patients who were female, with an alcoholic parent, using non-narcotic drugs were more likely to have pain. They note that the problem of child abuse is broader than physical and sexual abuse.
Raphael et al 2001 found an interesting difference between retrospective self-reports and prospecitive information from documented cases of child abuse and neglect. Cases of early childhood abuse or neglect documented between 1967 and 1971 (n=676) and demographically matched controls (n=520) were followed into young adulthood. Assessed prospectively, physically and sexually abused and neglected individuals were not at risk for increased pain symptoms. In contrast, the odds of one or more unexplained pain symptoms was significantly associated with retrospective self-reports of all specific types of childhood victimization.
Talley et al. 1994 found a significant association between IBS and sexual abuse, emotional or verbal abuse, and abuse in childhood and adulthood. Similarly, dyspepsia and heartburn were both significantly associated with abuse.
Jamieson 1997 has found in a study (N=581) about the association of childhood and adulthood sexual abuse and pelvic and other pain complaints: "In regression analyses, with the exception of irritable bowel syndrome, women with only a history of childhood sexual abuse and no abuse later in life are not more likely than nonabused women to report pain syndromes. By contrast, with the exception of dysmenorrhea, all pain complaints studied were more common in women reporting abuse both as children and as adults."
Chronic pelvic pain is a common gynecological problem. There has long been an assumption that social and psychological factors play a part in its genesis in a significant subgroup, but their precise role remains unclear. More recently, childhood sexual abuse has been implicated as a specific risk factor.
Toomey et al. 1993 found some relation between sexual abuse and pelvic pain (N=36, no control group). See also Toomey et al. 1995.
In a review of the research, Fry 1997 summarize: "it appears unhelpful to separate this type of pain into "psychogenic" and "organic" categories. ... The specificity of childhood sexual abuse as a risk factor is unclear."
An association was found by Pecukonis 1996.
No association was found by Edwards et al. 1997.
Walker et al. 1992 found risk for lifetime diagnoses of major depression, panic disorder, phobia, somatization disorder and drug abuse, and current diagnoses of major depression and somatoform pain disorder were significantly higher in the severely abused group compared with women with no abuse or less severe abuse.
A relation between volitional pedosexual relations and pain has not been found. The role of sexual abuse as adults (mentioned by Jamieson 1997) suggests that pain is related with unwanted experiences.