Challenges of emotional support for women with genital warts: A qualitative study

Abstract

Objective(s): Genital warts, in addition to being important as a sexually transmitted disease, can alter the emotional support of affected women and threaten couples' emotional relationships. This study was designed with a qualitative approach to investigate the challenges of emotional support for women with genital warts. Methods: The present qualitative study was performed from January 2019 to February 2020 in the dermatology clinic of Razi Hospital in Tehran, Iran, with purposive sampling of 16 women with genital warts. Data were collected through unstructured interviews and analyzed using conventional content analysis approach. Results: After data analysis, a total of 182 codes, 8 subcategories, 3 main categories and 1 theme were obtained. The theme namely "Emotional Support Challenges" included the three main categories of "emotional relationship change", "disclosing the disease to seek support" and "worry for labeling and judgment". Conclusion: The results of the present study showed the challenges of emotional support for women after contracting genital warts. After contracting genital warts, women experienced emotional deterioration. However, receiving emotional support from family members or friends instead of their partner accompanied by the worry of being judged and stigmatization.

Keywords

• genital warts
• human papillomavirus
• emotional support
• emotional relationships