PREVALENCE AND DIVERSITY OF SEXUAL DISORDERS AMONG MALE AND FEMALE PATIENTS IN A FAMILY HEALTH CARE CLINIC, TEHRAN - IRAN

The roots of human’s sexual responses lay in two biophysical and psychological operating systems. Sexual malfunctions of individuals may also be originated from physical or mental sources. Several variables control the sexual responses and affect health of sexual behavior. Sexual disorders also affect marriage and are considered the source of tension. The present trial aims to study the diversity of sexual response disorderss among married men and women and to identify the effective variables such as age, sex, persistence of sexual problems, physical illnesses, mild mental disorders, marital relation tensions, tendency to treatment, and the type of treatment. We applied a descriptive method in this research and collected data from available samples (32 married females and 61 married male) referred to Family Health Care Clinic by a researcher- designed questionnaire. The average age of the samples was 36.4 (S=9.5). Interviews, clinical examinations, and follow ups are applied to all of the test subjects. Results indicated that erectile disorders among males (49.1%) and anorgasmia or orgasmic disorders among females (38.7%) were the most frequent problems of patients. Premature ejaculation among male and vaginismus among female patients were the second major group of problems. Duration of sexual problems was less than 12 months among one-third of the samples. However, 22.2% of them were involved with sexual difficulties for more than 5 years. On the other hand, 30.2% of them were also involved with different mild mental or some kinds of physical problems. Almost 47.7% of patients reported tension in their marital relation, where in 9 cases these tensions led to divorcement request from judicial authorities. The present study revealed the diversity of sexual response disorders and their predictive variables among married couples. We discussed the result compliance of the present studies with findings of other studies overseas. The finding-application-analysis is also presented to have a better understanding of the variables, which causes sexual disorders.