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Quality of Sexual Life in Iranian Women with Diabetes: Psychosocial and Cultural Aspects

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Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a prevalent chronic worldwide disease, and sexual dysfunction is a common complication of this disease. Diabetes and its disabling complications often threaten sexual life. Despite the critical role of the psychosocial and cultural issues in the quality of sexual life in women with diabetes, these aspects have not yet been adequately addressed. This study aimed to explore the psychosocial and cultural aspects of the sexual life quality of women with diabetes in reproductive ages. Purposeful sampling was performed in two diabetes clinics and three physicians' offices in Tehran. After 29 In-depth interviews (25 women with diabetes and four key informants), data saturation was achieved. The qualitative content analysis method by Granheim and Lundman was used for data analysis, and consequently, two themes emerged. The first theme, "The dominant role of sociocultural context," consisted of two categories: "The influence of diabetes stigma on sexual identity" and "preferred silence." The second theme was "The burden of psychological distress on sexual life," which included three categories: "diabetes distress," "distress regarding social and health services unmet needs," and "stress management ability." Preferred silence to sexual problems was identified as the dominant sexual coping strategy of Iranian women with diabetes. This identification is an achievement of this study regarding the first theme. Thus, screening the quality of sexual life in women with diabetes is suggested. According to the second theme, psychological, sexual, and family planning health care integrated with medical diabetes care in diabetes clinics is recommended.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the women who participated in this study. Also, they would like to appreciate physicians who cooperated in recruiting participants from their offices or clinics. Special thanks to Dr. Saied Kalbasi, associated professor of Shahid Beheshti University, for his contribution to the selection of participants. The authors would also express their gratitude to all of the administrators of Tarbiat Modares University for supporting this research.

Funding

The present study was funded by Tarbiat Modares University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Reproductive Health and Midwifery, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Roza Hoorsan & Minoor Lamyian

  2. Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Fazlollah Ahmadi

  3. Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center, Avicenna Research Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Ali Azin

Authors
  1. Roza Hoorsan
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  2. Minoor Lamyian
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  3. Fazlollah Ahmadi
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  4. Seyed Ali Azin
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Contributions

The interviews have done by the first author of this study. All four authors have contributed to coding, data extraction, and data analysis. All of the authors discussed the result and commented on the manuscript. They reached an agreement on the last version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Minoor Lamyian.

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Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval

This study was extracted from the Ph.D. dissertation in reproductive and sexual health, with ethical confirmation (IR.MODARES.REC.1397.012) from Tarbiat Modares University. This study is licensed by the deputy of the treatment of Health ministry. Also, all necessary permits were obtained from research sites' managers before starting the study.

Consent to Participate

Written informed consent was obtained from each participant about voice-recording and satisfaction in taking part in the interviews.

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Hoorsan, R., Lamyian, M., Ahmadi, F. et al. Quality of Sexual Life in Iranian Women with Diabetes: Psychosocial and Cultural Aspects. Sex Disabil 39, 261–274 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-021-09683-2

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