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7. Clinicians reports
A manual search of the literature in Pubmed underthe headings sexual assault, unsolicited sexual arousal,did not recall any dedicated papers on the subject of sexual assault victims becoming aroused and/or orgas-mic. A brief study by Ringrose
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however, about theelicitation of pelvic reflexes in rape victims, reported thatin 25 cases of rape only one reported orgasm as a resultof the sexual assault, an incidence of 4%. The low inci-dence may be due to embarrassment or the shame of giving a positive answer.Anecdotal reports (personal communications ob-tained by e-mail) from three clinicians and a senior nursetherapist all involved in treating/counselling victims of sexual assault described unsolicited sexual stimuli cre-ating sexual arousal and even orgasm.Clinician A sent the following comments:
‘‘I (have) met quite a lot of victims (males) who had the full sex-ual response during sexual abuse.’’‘‘I (have) met several female victims of incest and rape who hadlubrication and orgasm.’’
Clinician B replied:
‘‘I have heard from some of my female patients that they havelubricated during rape, but not achieve orgasm. It does notmean that they could not have an orgasm.’’
Clinician C replied:
‘‘.... many of us occasionally see women who experience orgasmduring abusive sex
. . .
.’’ and are told by the abused that a com-ment from the abuser was ‘‘you must have enjoyed it – so what
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sthe problem?’’
The senior nurse-therapist said when interviewed byone of the authors (R.J.L.):‘‘Approximately 1 in 20 women who come to theclinic (an established NHS, CHS Sexual and MaritalRelationships clinic in a large provincial English city)for treatment because of sexual abuse report that theyhave had an orgasm from previous unsolicited sexualarousal. It is not detailed in the (professional) literaturebecause the victims usually do not want to tell/talkabout it because they feel guilty, as people will think thatif it happened they must have enjoyed it. The victimsoften say, ‘‘My body let me down’’. Some however,cannot summon the courage to say even that.’’The incidence of orgasm from unsolicited sexualarousal of approximately 5% quoted in the above in-terview is remarkably similar to the 4% reported byRingrose
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but both sources believe that these figures areprobably underestimates due to embarrassment