Persistent Pelvic Pain, Infertiltiy, Rape

Dear Sir,

In 1996 I was raped in my sleep and I cannot say whether it was real or not but that month I was confused. I went into fasting at the same time taking lime orange discovered that since then I have been having problems with my womb, stomach, menses. I married and couldn’t get pregnant. I just lost my husband. I have been taken to many hospitals but to no avail. I never had a boyfriend. Please help me. I don’t know what to do again. If I should remarry, I don’t want any complaint from my husband. My people did not believe me because of the doctor’s statement that it’s all imagination and that it is ulcer. That month as I was being taken from one place to another for treatment, I saw very black blood in my pants but they did not believe me. As I am writing now, I am feeling the persistent pain. Help me out please. I read yesterday’s Daily Sun and I saw something similar.
Barren Widow, Bariga, Lagos

Dear Barren Widow,
It is important that none of us should allow our past to hinder our future. Tell any man that’s interested in marrying you your whole story. If he loves you, he’ll go ahead. Unless one thoroughly examines you and puts the history of your troubles into consideration, one cannot do the best by you but with what I have and without examining you, the first diagnosis that comes to mind is endometriosis . The hallmark of this condition is pain – pain during menses, pain at the time of ovulation, pain during sex and inability to get pregnant. In my well-considered opinion and being a knowledgeable person in such matters, your experiences with your sleep and dream state are, most relevant and germane to your problems—they are not imagination or unreal. You were raped—and the experience was real—real enough for you to feel perhaps it was even physical. Any rape case is a complicated case—there’s psychological overlay and lack of confidence in men, to say the least. For it to have happened in your sleep makes one understand that it has spiritual dimensions also. So your human organism is under attack physically(endometriosis), psychologically (confusion) and spiritually(????husband killed). You need professional help at three levels – medically from a gynaecologist or a very well experienced doctor, psychologically from a good psychologist and spiritually from a priest. We can help with all three. If I were to handle your case, I would attribute all your challenges to the rape in the dream and take things from there. Of course you would be treated for any physical diseases (endometriosis currently has no cure, but with God, all things are possible) but it is my considered opinion that any approach to your problems that begins by not believing you or consigning what you experienced to make-belief or imagination in the name of science is bound to fail as they have failed all these 20-odd years.
Call the help-lines.