Sexuality and depression among pregnant women with recurrent spontaneous abortion

PURPOSE: It was to compare pregnant women who experienced recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) and those who did not in terms of the prevalence of depressive symptoms and sexual behavior. METHODS: A prospective case-control study was carried out. The first group consisted of women with RSA and the second, of primigravidae. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and one more questionnaire, developed by the authors themselves, about emotional aspects resulting from sexual intercourse during pregnancy were applied. The Student t-test was used to compare quantitative variables with normal distribution, and categorical variables were compared by the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. The level of significance was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: The BDI showed (19.9 versus 10.0%) approximately twice the incidence of depression in the RSA group. Regarding sexual function, the average scores of the FSFI were 21.1 and 16.4 (p<0.05) for the study and control groups, respectively, although no significant difference was observed only in the desire domain (average 3.4 +/- 1.3 for the RSA group and 3.7 +/- 1.1 for control group) (p=0.1). We observed that, regardless the presence or absence of an RSA history among the pregnant women, the higher the depression score, the lower the sexuality score (r=-0,3). CONCLUSIONS: The RSA pregnant group often experiences twice higher depression and more impaired sexual function. There is an inverse association between depression and sexual function.