The effect of religious attitudes on sexual dysfunctions in postmenopausal women

This descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the effect of religious attitudes on sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women. The study was conducted face-to-face with 110 postmenopausal women who applied to the gynecology outpatient clinics of Yozgat Bozok University Research and Application Hospital and who had a spouse/partner. The data of the study were obtained using the Sociodemographic Information Form, the Religious Attitude Scale (RAS), and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). The study data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, ANOVA Variance analysis, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Mann Whitney U test, and Spearman Correlation Analysis. The significance level of the study was accepted as p<0.05. The study found that the average age of postmenopausal women was 61.10±4.63 (range 49-65), 94.5% were housewives, 93.6% were primary school graduates, 40.9% lived in a village/town, 71.8% had an income equal to their expenses, 40.9% had been in menopause for 11-20 years, 86.4% entered menopause naturally, and 50.9% had sexual dysfunction. It was determined that postmenopausal women had a religious attitude at a level above the average, with a score of 23.4±2.38 on the RAS, and low sexual function with a score of 23.18±9.87 on the FSFI. A negative and low-level statistically significant relationship was found between the total scores of the RAS and FSFI (r=-0.199; p=0.037). It was determined that religious attitudes in postmenopausal women did not have a significant effect on sexual dysfunction. As a result of this study, it was found that as the level of religious attitude increases in postmenopausal women, sexual dysfunction also increases. It may be recommended to organize educational and counseling activities related to sexual dysfunction for postmenopausal women without ignoring their religious attitudes.