Is Pornography Use Associated with Sexual Desire and Marital Satisfaction Among Heterosexual Iranian Women?

Increasing access to various forms of pornography since the advent of the Internet has provided a new context for couples’ sexual experiences, but the possibility of adverse effects of pornography on couples’ romantic relationships is a concern.

The aim of this study was to compare sexual desire and marital satisfaction in two groups of married women with and without a history of pornography use in Rafsanjan, Iran.

This descriptive study was performed on 254 women with children covered by comprehensive health centers in Rafsanjan by convenience sampling in 2020. Data collection tools included demographic characteristics form, Enrich Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire, Hurlbert index of sexual desire and sexual pornography use questionnaire. Data were analyzed by chisquare, two independent samples, and multivariate analysis of covariance in SPSS software version 21. the statistical significance level of p-values considered at 0.05.

There was a positive and significant relationship between sexual desire and the use of pornography (P = 0.043). The mean score of marital satisfaction in the group of pornography users women was lower than the nonusers group, but this relationship was not statistically significant. Of the nine components of marital satisfaction, there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups only in the component of financial management (P = 0.037). There was no statistically significant relationship between demographic characteristics and use of pornography (P > 0.05).

It seems that the use of pornography in married women is related to sexual desire, but in the present study, no relationship was found between the use of pornography and marital satisfaction. More studies required to reveal the relationship between pornography use on sexual features of women and their partners.