Sociodemographic features, depression and anxiety in women with life-long vaginismus

Objective: Vaginismus is a female sexual dysfunction with reflex spasm of the muscles around vagina making penile penetration impossible. Many factors such as psychological, social and cultural may cause vaginismus were proposed, but debates are still ongoing. In this study, factors that may be related with vaginismus were studied and compared with controls. Methods: The participants were women with vaginismus without any organic pathology in gynecological examination and healthy controls. Twenty-five women with vaginismus and 25 controls who have no difficulty with vaginal penetration were evaluated by self-reported scales for depression, anxiety and sexual function. Sociodemographic variables were collected for each participants. Results: Women with vaginismus did not differ from controls in sociodemographic characteristics. The women with vaginismus had significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety. Total score of Glombok-Rust Sexual Satisfaction Scale, subscores of vaginismus, satisfaction, avoidance, anorgasmia were significantly higher and level of sexual knowledge was also limited in women with vaginismus. Discussion: Multiple sociodemographic and clinical factors are found associated with vaginismus. Some of the findings are supported by the literature but some are not. This may remind us there are still unclear concerning related factors in vaginismus. So, there is need for further studies in which hypotheses of different etiopathogeneses of vaginismus will be held. [Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg 2016; 17(6.000): 489-495]