effect of a sex education program on females’ sexual satisfaction during pregnancy: a randomized clinical trial

Background: changes in sexual relations are common during pregnancy. these changes may affect couples negatively regarding marital and sexual satisfactions. objectives: the current study aimed at investigating the effect of a sexual counseling project on females’ sexual satisfaction during pregnancy. methods: the current randomized, clinical trial was performed on a sample of 60 pregnant females referred to the prenatal care clinic of fatemieh hospital of hamadan, iran, in 2014. females were assigned to the intervention and control groups. a 3-part instrument was used including a demographic information form, an inventory of changes in sexual activities during pregnancy, and the linda berg sexual satisfaction scale. the intervention group was divided into 3 subgroups of 10, and each subgroup participated in 4 weekly educational sessions. descriptive statistics, chi-square test, the independent samples t test, and paired t test were used to analyze the data. results: after education, excellent self-evaluation of the quality of sexual relations in the intervention group increased significantly (p < 0.001). the mean sexual satisfaction score of the intervention group significantly increased after the intervention compared with that of before intervention (68.32 ± 12.0 vs. 66.24 ± 12.32, p = 0.029). among all variables, only the participants’ education level had significant correlation with the effect of the intervention on pregnant females’ sexual satisfaction. conclusions: the sexual education program implemented in the current study could significantly increase the females’ sexual satisfaction score in the intervention group.