Vaginismus and its correlates in an Iranian clinical sample

Although vaginismus is a relatively common female sexual dysfunction in Iran, there are scant studies reporting on its clinical and social features. The aim of the present study was to compare the social and clinical characteristics of women with vaginismus with those of healthy women. The study comprises 22 patients with vaginismus and 22 healthy controls who presented to the health clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. We used three assessment tools: interview, a (34-item) questionnaire for demographic and clinical characteristics of vaginismus and a 13-item questionnaire of Female Sexual Distress Scale-Revised (FSDS-R) for sexual distress. The majority (73%) of women with vaginismus had primary vaginismus (unconsummated marriage). These women demonstrated significant higher phobia than healthy women, including fear of genital pain and penetration, fear of bleeding during intercourse, height phobia, aversion to looking or touching the genitalia, fear of vaginal disproportion and also disgust of semen. Compared with the healthy women, these women displayed a significantly higher sexual distress score, defecation or urination problems, general anxiety, higher education levels and lower self-esteem. Our findings suggest that there is a strong correlation between vaginismus, phobia and anxiety.