Re: Anne Stuart Black Ice Epub
Oleta Blaylock
Evaluating children for sexual assault or abuse should be conducted in a manner designed to minimize pain and trauma to the child. Examinations and collection of vaginal specimens in prepubertal girls can be extremely uncomfortable and should be performed by an experienced clinician to avoid psychological and physical trauma to the child. The decision to obtain genital or other specimens from a child to evaluate for STIs should be made on an individual basis. However, children who received a diagnosis of one STI should be screened for other STIs. History and reported type of sexual contact might not be a reliable indicator, and urogenital, pharyngeal, and rectal testing should be considered for preverbal children and children who cannot verbalize details of the assault (1438,1449). Factors that should lead the physician to consider testing for STIs include the following (1449):