Prevalence of sexual abuse in women with and without chronic pelvic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a debilitating condition that mainly affects women, characterized as noncyclical pain that lasts more than 6 months and can be triggered by factors such as a history of sexual abuse. This study aimed to verify the prevalence of sexual abuse in women with and without CPP and to describe the primary screening tools for this occurrence. This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted with Case–Control studies, on the PubMed, Embase and Scielo platforms between 2010 and 2024. Seven articles were eligible for analysis. A high prevalence of sexual abuse was observed in this review in women with CPP. However, only three studies observed a statistically significant difference compared to the control in their results, which ranged from 20 to 55 percent. In the meta-analysis of prevalence, 968 participants with CPP were evaluated, and 28 percent had a history of sexual abuse, 33 percent in childhood, and 26 percent in adulthood. Compared with 956 controls, sexual abuse was 2.33 times more frequent in this population [95 percent CI: 1.82–2.97; p < .001]. The studies individually diverged on sexual abuse in women with CPP. However, the meta-analysis observed that this history is significantly prevalent in women with CPP, both in childhood and in adulthood.