Comparing Sexual Self-Concept of Fertile and infertile women referred to Health Centers and Infertility center in Karaj, Iran, 1396

Infertility is one of the most important crises in marital life that affects other aspects of personal life. The aim of the present study was to compare the sexual self-concept in fertile and infertile women referring to community health centers and infertility in Karaj, Iran.

This study is a causal-comparative and cross-sectional study. The study population included all fertile women who were referred to community health centers and infertile women referred to the infertility center of Karaj. To select the sample group, a sampling method was used to select the sample of infertile women and a two-stage cluster randomized cluster sampling method was used for the fertile women. A total of 280 subjects were selected as the research sample. For data collection, a questionnaire was used for demographic characteristics, fertility and infertility characteristics and the multivariate sex-self-concept questionnaire (MSSCQ) for both groups.

The results showed that fertile women in relation to the components of positive sex self-concept include prevention of sexual problems, sexual satisfaction, sexual self-esteem, sexual behavior management, sexual motivation, sexual desire, motive for avoiding high-risk sexual relationships, sexual alertness, sexual self-efficacy had a better situation compare to infertile women (p <0.05). Fertile women were better than infertile women in terms of negative sex self-concept components, including sexual anxiety, sexual and sexual patterns, and internal control of sex (<0.05).

Infertile women referring to infertility centers should be assessed about positive and negative sexual self- concepts to receive proper training by highly qualified counselors.