Comparing the Effectiveness of Attractive Orientation with Reality Therapy on Increasing Compatibility, Marital Intimacy, and Sexual Performance of Infertile Women: A Qusai-Experimental Study

Infertility is a difficult crisis in life, which is psychologically threatening and emotionally stressful, and couples' compatibility, intimacy, and sexual performance are exposed to damage. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of emotion-oriented therapy with reality therapy on increasing compatibility, marital intimacy, and sexual performance of infertile women.

The present study was a qusai-experimental group-based study (two experimental groups and one per-control group) in the form of a pretest-posttest design. A number of 45 infertile women in Isfahan Province in 2022 were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly placed in 15 groups of emotionally oriented therapy, reality therapy, and control. The experimental groups received emotional therapy in 8 sessions of 90 minutes once a week and reality therapy in 8 sessions of 60 minutes once a week, respectively. The control group did not receive any intervention.  In order to collect data, the questionnaires of the Spanier's Marital Compatibility, Rozenhan’s Sexual Performance, and Walker's Intimacy were used. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).

The results showed that in comparison with the control group, each treatment method had a significant effect on compatibility, intimacy, and sexual performance of infertile women (p<0.001). Also, emotional therapy had a greater effect on the research variables than reality therapy (p<0.001).

The results showed that in addition to emotion-oriented therapy, reality therapy also had an effect on increasing the compatibility, intimacy, and sexual performance of infertile women. Therefore, health professionals can use the two mentioned methods along with other effective methods to improve health-related characteristics.