Sexual Self-Concept in Fertile and Infertile Women: A Comparative Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Students Research Office, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Medical Ethics and Law, Reproductive Biomedicine Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

4 Department of Biostatistics, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

5 Population Health Research Group, Health Metrics Research Center, Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Sexual self-concept has a considerable impact on mental and sexual health. However, the relationship
between sexual self-concept and infertility is unknown. This study aimed to compare sexual self-concept between
fertile and infertile women.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 250 fertile and 250 infertile
women who had referred to 9 health centers affiliated to Medical universities in Tehran and Royan infertility treatment
clinics in Tehran, Iran in 2017. Sexual self-concept was measured using the Multidimensional Sexual Self-Concept
Questionnaire (MSSCQ) consisting of 20 subscales. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was performed to compare
sexual self-concept between the two groups.

Results: The mean age of fertile and infertile women was 34 ± 5.62 and 29.74 ± 5.29 years, respectively. The highest
score in both groups was for the sexual self-schemata subscale (mean score for fertile=3.21 ± 0.68 and for infertile=
3.42 ± 0.62). The lowest score was for sexual-depression subscale (mean score for fertile=0.59 ± 0.81 and for
infertile=0.61 ± 0.76). After adjustment for the age of each subject, the husband's age, duration of marriage, and women’s
education, we analyzed the sexual-satisfaction, the power-other sexual control, and the fear-of-sex subscales,
which were found to be significantly lower in infertile women (p <0.05). No other significant differences between the
fertile and infertile groups were observed.

Conclusion: We observed significant differences between fertile and infertile women in terms of sexual-satisfaction,
the power-other sexual control, and the fear-of-sex, but not in other sexual self-concept subscales. These findings suggest
that there is need to improve sexual self-concept among both fertile and infertile women. Indeed implementation
of educational and counseling programs by reproductive health specialists might play an important role in enhancing
sexual self-concept among these populations.

Keywords

References

1.Rostosky SS, Dekhtyar O, Cupp PK, Anderman EM. Sexual self-concept and sexual self-efficacy in adolescents: a possible clue topromoting sexual health? J Sex Res. 2008; 45(3): 277-286.
2.Ziaei T, Farahmand Rad H, Rezaei Aval M, Roshandel Gh. Therelationship between sexual self-concept and sexual function inwomen of reproductive age referred to health centers in Gorgan,North East of Iran. Journal of Midwifery and Reproductive Health.2017; 5(3): 969-977.
3.Mueller K, Rehman US, Fallis EE, Goodnight JA. An interpersonalinvestigation of sexual self-schemas. Arch Sex Behav. 2016; 45(2): 281-290.
4. Hensel DJ, Fortenberry JD, O’Sullivan LF, Orr DP. The developmentalassociation of sexual self-concept with sexual behavior amongadolescent women. J Adolesc. 2011; 34(4): 675-684.
5.Heidari M, Ghodusi M, Rafiei H. Sexual self-concept and itsrelationship to depression, stress and anxiety in postmenopausalwomen. J Menopausal Med. 2017; 23(1): 42-48.
6.Potki R, Ziaei T, Faramarzi M, Moosazadeh M, Shahhosseini Z. Bio-psycho-social factors affecting sexual self-concept: a systematicreview. Electron Physician. 2017; 9(9): 5172-5178.
7.Direkvand Moghaddam A, Delpisheh A, Sayehmiri K. Aninvestigation of the worldwide prevalence of infertility as asystematic review. Qom Univ Med Sci J. 2016; 10(1): 76-87.
8.Vitale SG, La Rosa VL, Rapisarda AM, Laganà AS. Psychology ofinfertility and assisted reproductive treatment: the Italian situation.J Psychosom Obstet Gynaecol. 2017; 38(1): 1-3.
9.Yazdani M, Mahmoodi Z, Azin SA, Qorbani M. The effect ofcounseling based on sexual self-concept via social networks onsmartphone in infertile women: a randomized controlled trial. Int JCommunity Based Nurs Midwifery. 2019; 7(3): 231-240.
10.Hasanpoor-Azghdy SB, Simbar M, Vedadhir A. The socialconsequences of infertility among Iranian women: a qualitativestudy. Int J Fertil Steril. 2015; 8(4): 409-420.
11.Nagórska M, Bartosiewicz A, Obrzut B, Darmochwał-Kolarz D.Gender differences in the experience of infertility concerning polishcouples: preliminary research. Int J Environ Res Public Health.2019; 16(13): 2337.
12.Snell WE‚ Jr. The multidimensional sexual self-conceptquestionnaire. In: Davis CM‚ Yarber WL‚ Bauseman R‚ Schreer G,Davis SL, editors. Sexuality related measures: a compendium. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: SAGE; 1998.
13.Ziaei T, Khoei EM, Salehi M, Farajzadegan Z. Psychometricproperties of the Farsi version of modified multidimensional sexualself-concept questionnaire. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2013; 18(6): 439-445.
14.Ramezani MA, Ghaemmaghami A, Talakar M, Saadat SH, ZamaniE, Shams J, et al. Validity and reliability assessment of multi-dimensional sexual self-concept questionnaire for Iranian population. Iranian Journal of Military Medicine. 2013; 14(4): 302-309.
15.Zare Z, Amirian M, Golmakani N, Mazlom R, Laal Ahangar M.Sexual dysfunction in infertile women. IJRM. 2016; 14(2): 89-94.
16.Ozturk S, Sut HK, Kucuk L. Examination of sexual functions anddepressive symptoms among infertile and fertile women. Pak JMed Sci. 2019; 35(5): 1355-1360.
17.Masoumi SZ, Garousian M, Khani S, Oliaei SR, Shayan A.Comparison of quality of life, sexual satisfaction and maritalsatisfaction between fertile and infertile couples. Int J Fertil Steril.2016; 10(3): 290-296.
18.Gabr AA, Omran EF, Abdallah AA, Kotb MM, Farid EZ, Dieb AS,et al. Prevalence of sexual dysfunction in infertile versus fertilecouples. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2017; 217: 38-43.
19.Mirblouk F, Asgharnia M, Solimani R, Fakor F, Salamat F, Mansoori S.Comparison of sexual dysfunction in women with infertility andwithout infertility referred to Al-Zahra hospital in 2013-2014. Int JReprod Biomed. 2016; 14(2): 117-124.
20.Hasanzadeh S. Comparison of sexual self-concept and its relatedfactors in postmenopausal and non-menopausal women referring to the Health Home of Tehran Municipality Neighborhoods, 2015-2016. Presented for the M.Sc., Tehran. Shahid Beheshti University. 2016.
21.Zaheri F, Dolatian M, Shariati M, Simbar M, Ebadi A, HasanpoorAzghadi SB. Effective factors in marital satisfaction in perspective of Iranian women and men: a systematic review. Electron Physician.2016; 8(12): 3369-3377.
22.Nydegger LA, DiFranceisco W, Quinn K, Dickson-GomezJ.Gender norms and age-disparate sexual relationships aspredictors of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and riskysex among adolescent gang members. J Urban Health. 2017;94(2): 266-275.
23. Bui TC, Markham CM, Ross MW, Williams ML, Beasley RP, Tran LTH, et al. Perceived gender inequality, sexual communication self-efficacy,and sexual behaviour among female undergraduate students in theMekong Delta of Vietnam. Sex Health. 2012; 9(4): 314-322.
24.Azmoude E, Firoozi M, Sadeghi Sahebzad E, Asgharipour N.Relationship between gender roles and sexual assertiveness inmarried women. Int J Community Based Nurs Midwifery. 2016;4(4): 363-373.
25.Cornelius T, Kershaw T. Perception of partner sexual history: effectson safe-sex intentions. Health Psychol. 2017; 36(7): 704-712.
26.Alimoradi Z, Kariman N, Simbar M, Ahmadi F. Contributing factors tohigh-risk sexual behaviors among Iranian adolescent girls: A systematic review. Int J Community Based Nurs Midwifery. 2017; 5(1): 2-12.

Files

Cited by

Share

How to cite

Statistics