Men sexually assaulted as adults and sexually abused as boys.

Previous research on sexually victimized men has mainly addressed the acute symptoms seen in hospital emergency rooms and psychiatric clinics. Findings are reported on 14 men, all but 1 of whom had been sexually traumatized much earlier in life, as boys or young adults. Several problem areas are described: repression, denial, or normalization of the trauma; self-blame and shame; posttraumatic stress disorder; male gender identity fragility; sexual orientation ambiguity and internalized homophobia; sexual difficulties; mistrustfulness of adult men; and disturbances of self-esteem and body image. Gender issues in treatment are discussed.