Exploring the factors affecting Iranian women's quality of sexual life

Females’ quality of sexual life is one of the key issues of sexual and reproductive health. This is a subjective concept and defined as individual’s perception of sexual aspect of life. The aim of this study was to explore the factors affecting Iranian women’s quality of sexual life.
Methods & Materials: This qualitative study was conducted by conventional content analysis. Data were collected by 17 in-depth, unstructured interviews and 14 sexual life narratives through purposeful sampling among married and reproductive aged women from five university-affiliated health centers in Tehran and Shiraz. Constant comparative method was used to analyze data.
According to the participants’ experiences, 3 themes emerged as direct factors affecting the quality of sexual life including ‘preparation before sexual relationship’, ‘couple’s interaction and harmony in sexual relationship’ and ‘previous sexual relationship outcomes’. ‘Marital life status’ and ‘passive sexual socialization’ were explored as the factors which can conceptualize the context of females’ quality of sexual life.
In this study, factors affecting females’ quality of sexual life were identified. Attention to these factors is suggested to design appropriate interventions by health care system in Iran.