Male Infertility and Its Impact on Women’s Sexual Behaviors: Need Attention to Psychological Problem as A Psychological Rehabilitation

Objectives: Those men who have long been suffering from infertility and failed to get any treatment experience higher levels of depression, are less satisfied with their sex lives, and are far less healthy. Sexual dysfunction is a problem among infertile couples that can affect marital relationship and satisfaction. This study aimed to examine male infertility and its influence on women’s sexual behaviors. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study in which people attending a Fertility Center in Yazd between 1 September 2013 and 10 March 2014 were included via convenience sampling. The subjects were women with infertile husbands without associated physical and mental diseases such as sexual function disorder, diabetes, cardiovascular and psychotic or mood disorder, or non-consumption of certain drugs and women with fertile husbands who were matched for age, education, and occupation. The data were gathered using three questionnaires: the Hurlbert Index of Sexual Assertiveness, Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs Questionnaire (SDBQ), and Couple Burnout Measure (CBM). The results were then compared between the groups. Results: The findings showed that the mean two subscales of emotional burnout (P=0.01) and psychological burnout (P=0.001) from the CBM were statistically significant in both the groups of women. There were differences between the mean scores of two groups in SDBQ subcategories with respect to sexual self-thought (P=0.002) and sexual dysfunctional beliefs (P=0.04). Sexual assertiveness in women with fertile husbands was higher than in the other one. Sexual burnout and SDBQ subcategories were higher in women with infertile husbands than in women with fertile husbands. Discussion: Male infertility may be associated with sexual disorders in the partner. Attention to psychological need and rehabilitation in infertile couples may be helping them to increase mental health and quality of life in these people.