For 15 years, Jennifer Alvarado lived in survival mode. She struggled to hold a job, was at risk of homelessness and relied on food banks to feed her family. It was exactly the kind of life she hoped to avoid when she joined the Navy as a 19-year-old single mom.
But after years of intimate partner violence compounded by military sexual trauma, Alvarado felt lost. At times, she found solace in drinking, and during one phase in her life, she considered suicide.
When Alvarado sought help through the Department of Veterans Affairs, she was often left disappointed. She said she was sexually harassed at her local VA clinic and that her benefits claim for depression was denied, though doctors piled on prescriptions.
Among women veterans who use VA care, around 1 in 3 report experiencing military sexual trauma (MST), which refers to a spectrum of sexual harassment, assault or both. Veterans with a history of MST experience a higher prevalence of substance abuse and are at increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, the DAV report shows.
An even more vulnerable time for women veterans is during menopause. According to the report, this period corresponds to the highest rates of suicide in U.S. women.
Usually beginning between ages 45 and 55, menopause comes with fluctuations in hormone production and is often accompanied by a variety of symptoms, including hot flashes, sleep disruption, body aches, weight gain, incontinence and memory problems. Menopause has also been shown to raise the risk for depression in U.S. women twofold, the report notes.
DAV has long been at the forefront of advocating for policy and legislative changes to better serve women veterans, who now represent more than 10% of all veterans. Most recently, DAV helped pass the Protecting Moms Who Served Act to improve maternity care, the Making Advances in Mammography and Medical Options (or MAMMO) for Veterans Act to improve access to mammograms, and the historic provisions from the Deborah Sampson Act aimed at enhancing health care programs and services for women veterans and improving access to care.
Read more at DAV.org.
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