When Betrayal Goes Beyond Bruises

Surviving Domestic Violence & the Trauma of an STD

Let’s talk about a kind of violation that rarely gets the attention it deserves.

Surviving domestic violence is already a devastating ordeal. But when you discover you’ve been given a sexually transmitted disease by the very person who abused you? That’s a betrayal that cuts deeper than most can imagine.

This is not “just part of life.” This is abuse on every level, physical, sexual, emotional, and medical.

It’s not just the physical toll of managing a lifelong condition. It’s the psychological weight of realizing your body was treated like a weapon, a possession, a battlefield.

Many survivors feel ashamed, humiliated, or even blamed, by others and sometimes by themselves. Let’s be very clear: this is not your fault. Someone who knowingly exposes their partner to an STD especially in the context of violence, coercion, or rape, is committing a grievous violation of both your trust and your human rights.

Here’s what you deserve to know:

• You are not dirty. You are not ruined.

• You are not weak for being hurt. You are strong for surviving.

• You deserve medical care, legal advocacy, and emotional healing, not silence.

  
  

Get tested. Get treatment. And most of all—get support.

Therapy, survivor networks, and trauma-informed medical care can help you reclaim your voice, your health, and your dignity.

This chapter of your life may be scarred, but it is not the end of your story. You are more than what was done to you.

You can move forward, not in denial, not in bitterness, but in truth and power.

And remember this: the shame belongs to the abuser, not to you.

There is life after trauma. There is strength after violation. There is healing,

even from this.