A Survey upon the Sexual Function and Behaviour of Pregnant Women Referring to State Health Centers of Ahvaz City- 2007

Pregnancy is known as a life crisis for women, which represents major life transitions. Moreover, it usually has substantial impacts on the sexual adjustment. Also some sexual behavior occurring during pregnancy, are accompanied with some complications for both mother and her fetus. Even though, yet, there are remarkably little empirical data about sexuality during pregnancy. This study helps to define which changes occur in sexual function and what kind of sexual behaviors are experienced by women during pregnancy. The study was a cross-sectional one which evaluated 102 pregnant women referring to state health-care centers of Ahvaz city, from February to March 2007. The inclusion criteria were confirmation of pregnancy with either pregnancy tests or sonography and having a stable partnership. Exclusion criterion was having any kind of medical-obstetric restrictions about sexual activities. Assessment was performed using a three-part questionnaire, consisting; 1- Sociodemographic and obstetrics data, 2- Sexual function translated copy of Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and 3- Sexual behavior. The validity of materials was confirmed with content validity and the reliability was proved by test-retest method. We completed questionnaires through execute interviews in a private condition after describing the aim of our study to the participants. After correlating data, they analyzed by SPSS 13. 102 pregnant women enrolled in the study. Mean age of women was 24.4 years old, most of them (38.2%) had high school education and most of them (56.9%) were primerigravids. Women’s mean marrital age was 20.23 years and the ethnicity of most of them (52%) was arabic. There was no difference between three group from the demographic variables point of view. When we compared sexual function's domain score between three trimester, consist of desire, excitement, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction and dysparonia, we observed significant decrease just in dysparonia domain with progressing of the trimesters (P<0.05). Total sexual function score decreased as the pregnancy progressed (P<0.05). 17/6% of pregnant women had been continuing anal sex, however, 38.2% had had oral sex and 29.2% had experienced sexual abuse by their partners, during pregnancy. Sexual function decreased with pregnancy progression. This can have negative effects on marital relationship, although in this study sexual function was less affected by gestational age and trimesters. Assessing the high-risk sexual behaviors during perinatal care, can help to decrease the consequent maternal and neonatal complications and can promote the family health.