The Effect of the Psychological Empowerment and Dialectical Behavior Therapy on Infertile Women's Anxiety and Sexual Satisfaction in Pretreatment Phase of In Vitro Fertilization

Due to the importance of psychological health of infertile women, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the psychological empowerment (PE) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) on infertile women's anxiety and sexual satisfaction during pretreatment phase of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

This clinical trial was conducted in February and March 2020 on 45 infertile women seeking IVF treatment, who referried to Isfahan infertility center. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups (two experimental groups and a control group, each with 15 participants). The experimental groups received psychological empowerment package (11 sessions) and dialectical behavior therapy (8 sessions) and the control group did not receive any intervention. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale and Sexual Satisfaction Scale-Women, whose reliability and validity were confirmed on Iranian sample were completed in pretest, posttest, and follow-up phases in the three groups. The data were analyzed using the repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS-24 software.

The results showed that PE had a significant effect on reducing anxiety and increasing sexual satisfaction (P <0.001). Also, a significant effect of DBT was seen on reducing anxiety (P <0.05).  However, it had no effect on increasing sexual satisfaction (p> 0.05). The difference between the mean scores showed that PE was more effective than DBT in reducing anxiety and increasing sexual satisfaction.

Using PE improves infertile women's mental health by reducing anxiety and increasing sexual satisfaction so that it is expected to could positively affect the outcome of IVF.