Identifying Psychological Factors Associated with Vaginismus in Married Women in 2018: A Qualitative Study

Even though women’s perception of factors affecting vaginismus is taken into account as a mental concept that can be induced by sociocultural values, it has not been assessed so far in the form of a qualitative study in Iranian culture. Therefore, the present study was conducted to identify psychological factors associated with vaginismus in married women referring to Tolou Clinic in Rasht, 2018.

A qualitative content analysis method was employed in this study. Using a purposive sampling method, the data were saturated with a total number of 11 women affected with vaginismus referring to Tolou Clinic in the city of Rasht from March 2018 to January 2019. Moreover, in-depth semi-structure interview was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis

During the process of content analysis, the participants elucidated three main categories of “cultural-educational factors”, “sexual knowledge”, and “sexual cognition and arousal”.

Based on the findings of this study, vaginismus was introduced as a sociocultural and psychological disorder that is determined by internalization of norms and values in a society with lack of well-timed sexual instruction, induction of negative sexual arousal and cognition, district educational styles for girls and creating duality and contradiction in girls’ mental structure between what they have learned and what they are expected to do as a woman.