young women who completed the survey listed multiple factors for participating in the practice, including pleasure, curiosity, pleasing their male partners and coercion. around one in four women with anal sex experience said they had been pressured to participate in the practice at least once.
anal sex is considered risky because it is connected to alcohol and drug use and multiple sexual partners, the article says, but there are other serious considerations that often go unmentioned. this includes an increased likelihood of fecal incontinence — which the authors say is more prevalent among women than men due to their differing anatomy — and the risk of anal sphincter injury.
“the pain and bleeding women report after anal sex is indicative of trauma and risks may be increased if anal sex is coerced,” they say.
unfortunately, societal taboos often cause clinicians shy away from the subject of anal sex, a tendency that does a disservice to patients by depriving them of understanding the risks their actions entail. the tendency of national health agencies, such as britain’s nhs, to focus solely on stds — and not trauma or incontinence — when discussing anal sex only makes matters worse, the authors say.
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