Introduction: Infertility is a great crisis and main reason for psychological complications such as stress, which causes depression, loss of libido, and reduced social activities, and disappointment in the married couples. The current study aimed at investigating the impact of relaxation techniques (Benson relaxation) on the reduction of stress and sexual dysfunction, and improvement of social concerns and communication concerns in females with infertility.
Methods: The present study was performed on females referring to Shahid Rahimi Clinic in Khorramabad, Iran in 2016. The subjects were selected by the convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into two groups of intervention (n=17) and control (n=17). The inclusion criteria were infertility for more than one year, age 34-18 years, lack of taking sedatives, not undergoing relaxation therapy, and lack of infertility factors with the exception of ovulation. The data collection tool was the infertility problems inventory developed by Newton et al. in 1999. Initially, two groups underwent pretest and at the end of the intervention, they were tested and analyzed with SPSS version 21.
Results: Benson relaxation could decrease stress (P < 0.05), sexual anxiety (P = 0.01), communication concerns (P = 0.01), and social concerns (P = 0.02) in the experimental group.
Conclusions: Relaxation plays an important role in reducing stress as well as sexual, social, and communication concerns in females with infertility. Gynecologists and reproductive specialists can use relaxation techniques to control stress in females with infertility.
bavazin F, Vieskarami H. The Effect of Relaxation Techniques on the Reduction of Stress, Sexual Anxiety, Communication Concerns, and Social Concerns in Females with Infertility. IJNR 2018; 13 (2) :10-16 URL: http://ijnr.ir/article-1-2012-en.html