The Effectiveness of Sexual Skills Training on Genital Self-Image, Psychological Distress and Meta-worry of Infertile Women

Infertile women are always exposed to a lot of anxiety and stress, and this affects their sexual function and quality of married life. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effect of sexual skills training on genital self-image, psychological distress and meta-worry of infertile women.

The quasi-experimental research design was pretest and posttest with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all infertile women admitted to Abadan Health Center in 2020. Using available sampling method, 40 people were selected and randomly divided into two groups of 20 people. The research instruments included Meta-worry Questionnaire, Depression Inventory, Anxiety and Stress Questionnaire, and Genital Self-Imaging Questionnaire. For the experimental group, 6 sessions of weekly program were applied for 1 hour per week, but the control group did not receive any program. Data analysis was performed by multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results of this study showed that sexual skills training after 6 sessions of intervention had a significant effect on reducing the score of depression, anxiety, stress and meta-worry in the experimental group compared to the control group (p<0.05). Also, the results showed that the mean score of genital self-image in the experimental group in the post-test stage was significantly different from the score of the control group. (p<0.05)

The results of the present study showed that sexual skills training is an effective strategy in improving psychological symptoms and genital self-image in infertile women and can be used as an effective treatment method in centers providing marital services and Infertility used.