The Relationship between Unwanted Pregnancy and Sexual Unsatisfaction among Iranian Pregnant Women

  Sexuality and its subsequent satisfaction play critical role in individuals’ overall quality of life, especially in women. Moreover, Sexual unsatisfaction and unwanted pregnancy are important public health problems among pregnant women worldwide. The main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between unwanted pregnancy and sexual satisfaction during pregnancy.

  In this study, we enrolled 120 women with unwanted pregnancy and 120 healthy controls. The Larson sexual satisfaction (ISS) questionnaire was used to evaluate sexual satisfaction scores in study participants. Demographic information was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. Data analysis was performed by the program SPSS 18 and statistical differences were considered significant at P-values<0.05.

The frequency of unsatisfaction (OR = 5.08; 95 % CI = 0.24–107.02; P = 0.497), low satisfaction (OR = 30.62; 95 % CI = 7.20–130.2; P <0.001), and moderate satisfaction (OR = 1.45; 95 % CI = 0.87–2.41; P =0.155), were higher in case group compared to controls, while frequency of the high satisfaction (OR = 0.11; 95 % CI = 0.06–0.22; P <0.001) was significantly higher in control groups. The total mean ISS scores for the women with wanted and unwanted pregnancies were 101.1 ±11.1 and 80.6 ±14.6, respectively (z= - 3.99, P < 0.001).

In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that unwanted pregnancy has negative effects on sexual satisfaction during the pregnancy. Further studies are needed to fully illustration of correlation between unwanted pregnancy and sexual dissatisfaction.