Findings from recent studies in diverse settings suggest that females who experience sexual coercion are more likely to experience subsequent incidents of forced sex, as well as (consensual) sexual risk-taking behaviours including:

• multiple sexual partners
• non-use of condoms, and
• increased risk of unintended pregnancy and STIs.

They are also more likely to experience poor mental health outcomes, and alcohol and substance abuse.

• A WHO multi-country report found that 60% of women whose first sex was forced subsequently experienced sexual violence with an intimate partner, compared to 23-27% of those whose first sex was consensual.
• In Nicaragua, women who had been severely abused were more likely to have more sexual partners subsequently than women who had not been abused or had been moderately abused.
• In Thailand young women who had forced first sex were more likely to experience sexual violence later in intimate partnerships.
• In Uganda coercive first sex was associated with a 71% higher risk of subsequent HIV acquisition.
• Sexually abused school-going adolescents in India reported higher rates of non-specific physical complaints such as sexual discharge, as well as poor mental health, suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse and cigarette smoking.
• In Pakistan and Ethiopia, girls who had experienced coercion had feelings of guilt, sadness, rejection and hopelessness, and some reported attempting to commit suicide.