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Somayyeh Khazaeian, Maryam Rahimi-Nezhad, Azita Fathnezhad-Kazemi, Effect of mindfulness on sexual self-esteem and marital intimacy in postmenopausal women: a quasi-experimental study, The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Volume 20, Issue 4, April 2023, Pages 542–548, https://doi.org/10.1093/jsxmed/qdad023
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Abstract
Menopause is a turning point in women’s lives and a major medical challenge, leading to drastic changes in sexual self-esteem and the husband-wife relationship, which can have an undeniable impact on the quality of their life.
To assess the effect of mindfulness-based education on sexual self-esteem and marital intimacy in postmenopausal women.
This quasi-experimental study was conducted with 130 women who were assigned to 2 groups, intervention (n = 65) and control (n = 65), out of whom 127 completed the study. The interventional group received 8 training sessions. The mindfulness-based intervention consisted of 8 educational sessions and daily mindfulness exercises. Sexual self-esteem was assessed by the Sexual Self-esteem Index for Woman–Short Form, and marital intimacy was measured with Thompson and Walker’s Intimacy Scale. The collected data were analyzed via analysis of covariance.
Outcomes included changes in sexual self-esteem and marital intimacy scores.
Participants in the intervention group demonstrated higher levels of total self-esteem posttreatment than participants in the control group (125.15 vs 119.46) and higher levels of intimacy (74.22 vs 61.59). The difference was still significant after adjusting for self-esteem (η2 = 0.312, P < .001) and intimacy (η2 = 0.573, P < .001) at baseline.
Mindfulness may be used as a strategy to improve sexual self-esteem and marital intimacy.
Unlike other treatments, mindfulness seems to be low cost and less complex in improving sexual self-esteem and marital intimacy. Limitations of this study include use of available sampling methods, nonrandom allocation of participants, and self-reporting data collection.
As evidenced by the results, 8 weeks of mindfulness training could improve sexual self-esteem and marital intimacy in menopausal women. The mindfulness-based intervention should be incorporated into routine care to help menopausal women.
