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vaginal and vulvar pain after waking up , was i sexually assaulted in my sleep ?

Posted: Wed May 15, 2024 11:41 am
by beena
Can one be sexually assaulted in sleep and not wake up ?

Me and mother were staying in a place with a person I don't trust. I slept late and when I woke up in the morning , he and my mother sibling were all in our room (which was open through the night') and chatting.

The first thing I registered was vulavr and vaginal pain, and my pants pressing uncomfortably into my privates

I don't remember anything from my sleep.

The pain lasted an hour or so, it was sharp and constant.
After that I was completely fine, atleast physically. Mentally the incident disturbed me.

Was i SA'd ? Is it possible to be SA'd and not wake up.? I have had bad experiences with men in the past, so is this just my trauma speaking ?

Re: vaginal and vulvar pain after waking up , was i sexually assaulted in my sleep ?

Posted: Wed May 15, 2024 12:31 pm
by Heather
Hi there, beena, welcome to the boards. I'm sorry this is why you're here, but I am glad that you are here.

It would be very unlikely to be sexually assaulted and not wake up unless you were drugged or otherwise intoxicated. Do you think those things were possibilities?

If not, what seems most likely to me is that that pain was real, but assault wasn't the cause of it. Some reasons we might wake up with genital pain are sleeping in a way that did a temporary thing to our circulation or nerve endings, cyclical hormonal changes, havign had sexual dreams that caused arousal (and thus, vasocongestion: blood flow to our genitals that can feel temporarily painful, especially if someone got excited but then didn't orgasm) or, like you mentioned, physical symptoms of emotional trauma, maybe relived in dreams.

Regardless, especially if you're an assault or abuse survivor, staying with someone you don't trust never feels good. Is that a situation that can be avoided moving forward?