effect of sexual education on sexual function of primigravid women: a clinical trial study

Background: sexual function is particularly important aspect of pregnant women’s lives that can affect mental health and family cohesion. the present study aimed to determine the effect of sex education on sexual function of primigravid pregnant women. methods: this randomized clinical trial study with four parallel groups (two intervention and two control groups) was conducted on 100 primigravid women in 2019. the two intervention groups (n=50) received three sessions of sex education, once a week and two control groups (n=50) didn't received sex education. the female sexual function index was completed at the beginning of the study and after eight weeks. data were analyzed with spss (version 18) and one-way analysis of variance (anova), paired t-test, fisher's exact test were used for analysis and significance was set at 0.05. results: the given that the mean sexual function in the groups before the intervention was significantly different (p=0.0004), the mean difference rate of change (mean drc) was used for inter-group comparisons. mean drc of sexual function in the first intervention group (sex education and prenatal education) was 0.173±0.563 (17% increase) and the second intervention group (only sex education), was 0.106±0.209 (10% increase). however, mean drc of sexual function decreased significantly in the two control groups (-0.0364±0.205) (-0.009±0.132) (p<0.05). conclusion: the results confirm the positive effects of sex education on sexual function during pregnancy. in addition, combination of sex education with conventional prenatal education can have a greater impact on the overall sexual function than each intervention separately.