| The significant perceived stress, depression, anxiety, stress and relational and sexual problems common among married persons with chronic pain is also reported in women with vulvodynia. In addition, approximately 45 to 50% of marriages in the United States alone end in divorce with perceived stress as a possible contributing factor. Moreover, married women with vulvodynia may be at an increased risk as well. This quantitative study utilized a causal-comparative and cross-sectional design and sought to identify if dependent measures, levels of perceived stress, depression, anxiety, stress, pain severity, marital satisfaction, and the sexual relationship, differ between 605 married women with vulvodynia and 269 married women without vulvodynia between the ages of 18 and 80 years old. Participants completed an online survey consisting of demographic and background questions and 88 items from eight dependent scales. All eight null hypotheses were tested simultaneously by conducting a MANOVA and these values were significant with p < .001. Individual ANOVAs were used to determine the significance of the planned contrasts and each of the eight dependent measures was significant with p = .001 or lower. Women with vulvodynia had significantly higher levels of perceived stress, depression, anxiety, stress, combined depression, anxiety, and stress, pain severity, marital dissatisfaction, and sexual relationship dissatisfaction compared to healthy controls. This study is an important contribution to women's health research. Further research recommendations consist of conducting follow-up qualitative studies, developing an integrated treatment modality for psychological therapy, sex therapy, stress management counseling, and inclusion of the spouse in couple therapy specifically focused on the subject group studied, as well as the development of a self-help resource for women with vulvodynia and/or their partners based upon the study's findings. |
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