Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy based on body image on sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment of married infertile women

Aim: The aim was to determine effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy based on body image on sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment of infertile women.
Method was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and follow-up with control group and statistical population was infertile women referred to 26 infertility treatment centers in Tehran in 2017 who, according to body multidimensional questionnaire’s Cash (1994) were dissatisfied with their body image. 30 infertile woman were selected using a two stage cluster sampling method and were placed randomly in two experimental and control groups. In this way, two centers namely, Hilal Ahmar Rooyesh and Khatam Ol-Anbiya were selected and participants were randomly selected from these centers and completed two questionnaires Larsson's (1976) Sexual Satisfaction Scale and Spinner's (1998) Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy based on body image, based on previous research by Cash and Strachan (2002) and Rosen, Saltzberg and Srebnik (1998) was implemented in experimental group once a week in nine sessions of 90 minutes duration. Data was analyzed using analysis of mixed variance with repeated measures.
Results showed significant difference between experimental and control groups in increased sexual satisfaction (F= 6.173, P= 0.019) and marital adjustment (F= 4.768, P= 0.039) scores in posttest and two month follow-up.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy of body image leads to self-confidence in sexual relationships and improves sexual satisfaction and marital adjustment of infertile women. This may occur as a result of modifying negative beliefs about physical appearance and replacing them with positive thoughts.