Social Phobia, Traumatic Experiences and Other Psychosocial Factors Accompanying Vaginismus

Aim: Vaginismus is the most common reason for women to apply to psychiatry outpatient clinics due to sexual problems. It has been suggested that many psychological, social, and cultural factors may cause vaginismus; however, it has not been fully clarified. In this study, factors that may be associated with vaginismus were evaluated and compared with controls. Methods: The case group was constituted of 28 females diagnosed with primary vaginismus, and the control group was constituted of 27 healthy individuals with no difficulty in vaginal penetration. All individuals participating in the study were evaluated with self-reported scales in terms of state-trait anxiety, social phobia, self-regard, childhood trauma, and sexual function. In addition, sociodemographic variables were collected for each participant. Results: While the mean age was 25.04±2.62 in the vaginismus group, it was 26.48±2.83 in the control group. Compared to the control group, women with vaginismus were found to have significantly higher scores for age difference with their parents, state-trait anxiety, emotional neglect, physical neglect, emotional abuse, a total of childhood trauma scale, communication, satisfaction, touching, frequency, vaginismus, anorgasmia, and lower scores for self-esteem. In addition, a positive correlation was found between maternal education level, state and trait anxiety, childhood trauma, social phobia, self-esteem scale score and vaginismus. Conclusion: It was considered that to evaluate vaginismus only as an entry difficulty would be deficient and that there may be comorbid or related conditions such as social phobia, anxiety, trauma, low self-esteem, and a holistic evaluation is necessary. Keywords: psychological trauma, psychosocial factors, social phobia, vaginismus