Clinicians' reluctance to discuss the possible harms of anal sex with their patients is letting down a generation of young women who are unaware of the risks, researchers have warned.
In an editorial for the medical journal The BMJ last week, surgeons Tabitha Gana and Lesley Hunt argued that with anal intercourse becoming more common among heterosexual couples, failure by doctors to candidly discuss the risks can expose women to "missed diagnoses, futile treatments, and further harm arising from a lack of medical advice".
Gana and Hunt, a colorectal surgeon and consultant surgeon respectively at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, UK, have warned that healthcare professionals - particularly those in general practice, gastroenterology and colorectal surgery - "have a duty to acknowledge changes in society around anal sex in young women".
Anal intercourse is considered a risky sexual act due to its association with alcohol, drug use and multiple sex partners, as well as being associated with specific health concerns, Gana and Hunt explained, including incontinence and injuries caused by trauma.
For example, increased rates of faecal incontinence and sphincter injury have been reported in women who have anal intercourse and > due to their different anatomy, women are also at a higher risk of incontinence than men.
Women should really understand that one hole is just made for an exit. Apparently they need a professor with a phd, in what the f ever field, to teach them that in a 3 month college course under the heading "This hole is where poop comes out of" or maybe they should tattoo the words "NOT AN ENTRANCE" over their butt holes.