"Very well done study" shows that fibroids linked to childhood abuse - emotional, physical, sexual

[snagglepuss]

snip

The results suggest that the consequences of child abuse can last way beyond childhood, study author Dr. Renee Boynton-Jarrett of the Boston University School of Medicine told Reuters Health.

snip

The report, published in the journal Epidemiology, also showed that the more abuse women said they suffered as children, the more likely they were to be diagnosed in adulthood with fibroids, which can cause pain, abnormal bleeding and infertility.

The study cannot prove that child abuse caused women's fibroids, but there are several reasons why early abuse might increase fibroid risk, Boynton-Jarrett explained. "One possibility is that childhood abuse is associated with health behaviors such as eating and activity patterns, which elevates your risk of obesity," a known risk factor for fibroids.

Alternatively, chronic stress resulting from the abuse may disrupt how the body regulates hormones, which can also raise the risk of fibroids, Boynton-Jarrett added.


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AS4B920101129

[SharonAnn]

1. Abuse. The gift that keeps on giving.

[villager]

3. And shaping the world. So the abused become the abusers, and keep their hands on the levers of power

n/t

[undergroundpanther]

9. abused kids do NOT become adult abusers.

Keep the myths out of this.


Abusive behaviors are intentional, not the result of uncontrolled rage or impulse. The primary goal of abusive behaviors is to impose one’s will upon another. It is a desperate attempt to maintain control of the relationship. For example, one batterer described how he pushed his partner against the wall and pounded the wall on either side of her head. He purposefully wanted to avoid any visible physical injury to her or damage to property, but intended to ensure that she clearly understood his message of intimidation.

http://www.myazbar.org/AZAttorney/Archives/April98/4-98a2.htm

MYTH: MALE SURVIVORS WILL GO ONTO SEXUALLY ABUSE OTHERS.

BULLSHIT! Despite any so called statistics that say males sexually abused could go on to sexually their children or children they know, the figures FAIL to represent true male Survivors, who would NEVER sexually abuse children!

If that myth was true, then surely every survivor, male and female, would be claased as abusers, yet it never thought that female survivors would abuse their children, so why is it thought that we, as males, would even consider sexually abusing our children?

Having worked with over 3,000 male survivors of sexual abuse, none of them would ever consider inflicting the same pain on another child and cause them the same pain.
http://www.amsosa.com/myths.htm

[yodermon]

11. 100% of Violent Criminals or Sex abusers were themselves abused.

I'll qualify that to 99.99% for the inevitable exception.

Having been abused is a necessary but not sufficient condition for restaging abuse.

*of course* not all abused children {nor abused adults} go on to be abusers themselves.

However, virtually ALL abusers WERE themselves abused.. so it's incumbent on us to determine what causes the guy in your example to choose to pound her head instead of the wall.

Statistics on what percentage of abused kids DO themselves go on to be abusers would be interesting, I've never seen them.

[villager]

14. Yet, the abusive homes that "leaders" like Reagan and Bush came from...

...shaped them.

similarly abused people/voters respond to them, and they arrive at a position of power, from which abusive policies -- usually based on projected/denied rage -- emerge.

If there was no carry-over from generation to generation, human history would've been radically different.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Interesting.

[snagglepuss]

5. Its particularly interesting given the size of the study - 68,505 premenopausal women

Source Science Daily

snip


Participants in this study included 68,505 premenopausal US nurses, enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study II. Sixty-five percent of these women reported physical or sexual abuse as a child or teen.

The researchers discovered 9,823 incident diagnoses of ultrasound- or hysterectomy confirmed uterine leiomyomas. A dose-response association between cumulative abuse and fibroid risk was found. Risk for fibroids increased from eight to 36 percent among those with the mildest to most severe cumulative abuse in childhood.

"Our analyses showed that exposure to physical, sexual or emotional abuse in childhood and adolescence was associated with an increased risk for clinically symptomatic fibroid tumors in adulthood. The impact of early life adversity on fibroid risk persisted even among those with no future violence exposure in adulthood," said lead author Renee Boynton Jarrett, MD, ScD, an assistant professor of pediatrics at BUSM.

snip

According to Boynton-Jarrett, early life exposure to violence may underpin biologic and behavioral patterns that affect fibroid risk in adulthood. "Childhood abuse may have long-lasting consequences that jeopardize health and well-being not only in childhood, but adulthood as well. We also found that emotionally supportive relationships are protective and in part buffer the negative effects of abuse on fibroid risk in adulthood. Taken together, these findings support the need for future research investigating both the health outcomes associated with child abuse, as well as the factors that may enhance biological resiliency in the face of adversity."



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101115111011.htm

[JDPriestly]

7. Unbelievable.

From the study: "Sixty-five percent of these women reported physical or sexual abuse as a child or teen."

This is our number one problem.

[midnight]

4. Not to long ago studies blamed mothers for autism....

[Cassandra]

8. You never met my mother.

[JDPriestly]

6. "chronic stress resulting from the abuse may disrupt how the body regulates hormones"

Child abuse is the country's number one domestic problem. And parenting classes help. Every American parent should be given the opportunity to participate in parenting classes.

[aquart]

10. How big was this study?

Because it didn't include me.

[MorningGlow]

12. What the hell?

Let us revisit the correlation/causation thingie again. What's up with the leap that people with wonky hormones were abused and therefore abuse causes fibroids? My hormones are wonky and I have fibroids, but I was never abused.
:wtf:

[gkhouston]

13. and I never knew I had them until they showed up on an ultrasound. No pain,

no unusual bleeding. My ob/gyn said that pretty much all women get them eventually, it's just a matter of how many, how large, and whether or not they cause problems.

[LeftishBrit]

15. Stress can increase risks of all kinds of illnesses...

and in particular, as stress can affect hormones, one might expect that it could affect the risk of hormone-related disorders.

And child abuse could increase stress levels.

So a link is possible.

Nevertheless, fibroids are extremely common, and certainly there are lots of people with fibroids, who were never abused. (I know single cases aren't datasets, but I was never abused, and I do have fibroids.)