Comparison of marital satisfaction in fertile and infertile couples and its relationship with sexual problems

Infertility as a crisis in couple's life, not only creates psychological problems, but also, it can act as a powerful impact on the relationships between couples. In many cases, infertility affects a great impact on couple's sexual relationships. According to different results of studies about the effect of infertility on marital and sexual relationships, this study was performed with aim to compare marital satisfaction in fertile and infertile couples and evaluation of its relationship with sexual problems.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 110 infertile and 110 fertile couples referred to Montaserieh Infertility Center and five Health-Medical centers in Mashhad in 2013. Data collection tools included personal characteristic questionnaire, Nathan H. Azrin marital satisfaction and Glombok-Rust questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16) and Mann-Whitney, Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficient tests.

The mean score of marital satisfaction in fertile and infertile women was 64.4±12.9, 65.2±12.5, respectively that was in moderate level in both groups. According to the results of Mann-Whitney test, there was no significant difference in the marital satisfaction score in fertile and infertile couples (P=0.45). There was a significant inverse correlation between marital satisfaction with sexual problems in both groups (r=-0.35, p<0.0001).

Regarding the relationship between marital satisfaction and sexual problems, it seems that use of the approaches to identify and treat sexual problems is required in health and infertility centers to increase marital satisfaction.