The relationship between sexual self‑concept and contraception sexual behavior in 15 to 49 years old women covered by community health centers

One of the most important goals of sexual intercourse is to arouse the psychological effects of intercourse and to increase sexual self‑concept, which changes following sexual behaviors such as the use of contraception methods. This study was performed to investigate the relationship between sexual self‑concept and contraception sexual behavior in 15–49‑year‑old women covered by community health centers.

The present descriptive correlational study was performed on 297 married women referring to Isfahan community health centers in 2020 who were selected as cluster that randomly classified. The tools included demographic information and the Snell’s Multidimensional Sexual Self‑Concept Questionnaire, the data of which were analyzed via SPSS version 22 software by Mann–Whitney U test and Pearson correlation.

Among a total of 297 women, 5.4% of the samples used hormonal methods and 94.6% used non‑hormonal methods, which was the most common intermittent method. The results also showed that the mean score of negative sexual self‑concept in women using the hormonal level method was significantly higher (P = 0.012). Positive and positive sexual self‑concept score was significantly higher in women using non‑hormonal methods (P = 0.048 and P = 0.002). Therefore, there was a significant relationship between sexual self‑concept and contraception method.

Due to the relationship between contraception and sexual self‑concept, it is recommended to pay attention to the aspects of sexual self‑concept and contraception during reproductive health counselling sessions so that if there is a disorder, useful advice can be provided or referred, if necessary.