Mindfulness-based counseling for sexual relational concern in infertile women: A clinical trial protocol
Romina Fili, Fereshteh Behmanesh, M. Nikpour, A. Hamidia, S. Esmaeilzadeh
Journal of Education and Health Promotion May 1, 2026 DOI: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_1296_25 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial protocol Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 80 |
| Population | Infertile women in Babol, Iran |
| Intervention | Mindfulness-based counseling |
| Duration | Seven weekly counseling sessions; outcomes measured immediately and one month after the study |
| Measures | sexual relational concern questionnaire |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | The protocol proposes that seven weekly telephone sessions of mindfulness-based counseling, following Kabat-Zinn's standard protocol, may reduce sexual relational concern among infertile women compared with no training. The authors suggest positive results could help alleviate psychological complications of infertility and improve the effectiveness and speed of infertility treatment. No outcomes have been reported yet. |
Abstract
Background: Infertility affects the sexual and psychological behavior of women and causes anxiety. Physical infertility treatment without psychological intervention is not successful enough. Mindfulness cognitive behavioral therapy, as the simplest yet most effective type of meditation in the world, can probably improve the level of psychological-sexual components of infertile women, including sexual relational concern. This study will investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based counseling in reducing sexual relational concern among infertile women.
Materials and Methods: This randomized clinical trial will involve 80 infertile women selected through simple sampling from March 2024 to July 2025 in Babol, Iran. If participants meet the inclusion criteria, they will complete demographic and sexual relational concern questionnaire. Then will be randomly assigned to intervention or control groups using randomization with blocks of 4. After a face-to-face counseling session, the intervention group will receive seven sessions of mindfulness-based counseling by telephone at one-week intervals according to Kabat-Zinn’s standard protocol. Participants in the control group will not receive any training. All participants will complete the sexual relational concern questionnaire immediately and one month after the study. Data will be analyzed with SPSS version 22 software using Chi-square, T-test, and repeated-measures ANOVA tests. A significance level of 5% will be used for the tests.
Conclusion: This study will demonstrate the impact of mindfulness-based counseling on sexual relational concern in infertile women. The positive results of this counseling could be a beneficial solution to reduce the psychological complications of infertility in women, and so, increase the effectiveness and speed of infertility treatment. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This trial protocol has been approved in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT) at 2024-01-20. Registration reference is IRCT20180218038783N8.