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This qualitative study was performed to identify changes in the sexual lives of young women receiving breast cancer treatment. The study was conducted with eight exclusively self-defined heterosexual married women whose breast cancer treatments were ongoing in the ambulatory chemotherapy unit. The data were collected through semistructured and in-depth individual interviews. All interviews were tape-recorded. The raw results were obtained by analyzing the content of the recorded data. In this study, the subject of the interviews was penile-vaginal intercourse, as the participants perceived sexuality as equivalent to penile-vaginal intercourse. The changes in the sexual lives of young women receiving breast cancer treatment were analyzed according to three themes as follows: (1) intermittent penile-vaginal intercourse, (2) sexual activity initiated by the male and (3) sexual dysfunction. This study assists health professionals in recognizing changes in young women's sexual lives. Thus, healthcare professionals can provide couples with appropriate counseling to promote healthier sexuality and maintain a higher quality of life.

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The perception of menopause, menopausal attitudes, and problems faced during this period vary from one society to another. This study was conducted in order to determine the symptoms and perception of menopause, as well as factors affecting and influencing this perception. This study was made with the help of 300 women in menopause who applied to Akdeniz University Research and Application Hospital in January 2007. The study used sociodemographic data from a descriptive survey form. The data were collected by researchers in face-to-face interviews. The mean menopause age of participating women was x = 45.75 ± 4.7. A total of 41.3% of the women had primary education, and 62% of the women also had one or two children. There was a significant relationship between attitudes toward menopause and a woman's age, educational status, number of children, duration of living with spouse, satisfaction with marriage, menopausal age, menopause duration, and sexual intercourse after the menopausal period. The most important aspect of polyclinic services related to menopause is to increase and maintain women's quality of life. In this context, education modules should be developed to help couples perceive menopause in a more positive way.

The authors designed this study in order to understand changes in sexual behavior during pregnancy. The sample comprised 26 healthy women who were in at least their 37th week of pregnancy. The authors collected data through in-depth individual interviews. Participants reported the following most common reasons for ceasing sexual intercourse in the final stages of pregnancy: (a) physical discomfort during sex, (b) belief that it could be physically harmful to the fetus, (c) belief that it is sinful according to Islamic injunctions, (d) belief that the baby will be born "stained" because of the misperception of vernix caseosa as sperm, and (e) changes in sexual life at the recommendation of health professionals.

This cross-sectional study has been conducted in a descriptive, correlational design in order to determine the correlation between sexual satisfaction and depressive symptoms. In this respect, sexual satisfaction and depression scores were assessed in 102 infertile couples in a Turkish university hospital. There was a positive and meaningful correlation between Beck Depression scores and educational status and monthly income of infertile women on the one hand, and among marriage, infertility, infertility treatment durations, and the number of assisted-reproduction treatments on the other hand. It was found that there were more sexual dysfunctions in women than in men and that they were affected more deeply. As a result, it might be suggested that infertile couples receive proper guidance from health professionals in the course of treatment.

Premenstrual sendrom üreme çağındaki kadınlarla görülen problemlerden biridir. Bu çalışma, üniversite öğrencilerinde premenstrual sendrom ve sağlıklı yaşam biçimi davranışları arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemek amacıyla tanımlayıcı, ilişki arayıcı olarak yapılmıştır. Çalışma, Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi'nde 677 kız öğrenci ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmanın verileri kişisel bilgi formu, Premenstrual Sendrom Ölçeği, Sağlıklı Yaşam Biçimi Davranışları Ölçeği-II kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Verilerin değerlendirilmesinde yüzdelik, ortalama, Chi-Square, Independent Samples t-test, Logistic regression analizi kullanılmıştır. Araştırma kapsamına alınan öğrencilerin yaş ortalaması 20.27±1.60'dır. Öğrencilerin yüzde 69.7'si eğitim fakültesinde öğrenim görmektedir. Katılımcıların menstruasyon öyküsü özellikleri değerlendirildiğinde; öğrencilerin yüzde 73.3'ü menarş yaşı 13-15 yaş arasında olduğunu (ortalama menarş yaşı 13.32±1.19), ortalama menstruasyon sıklığı 27.65±3.68, yüzde 76.4'ü menstruasyon süresi 5-7 gün arasında olduğu (ortalama menstruasyon süresi 5.86±1.38) ve yüzde 87.6'sı düzenli menstruasyon olduğunu, yüzde 81.4'ü de dismenore yaşadığını ifade etmiştir. Araştırmaya katılan öğrencilerin %62'sinin premenstrual sendrom yaşadığı saptanmıştır. Öğrencilerin Premenstrual Sendrom Ölçeği puan ortalaması 121.30±34.02, Sağlıklı Yaşam Biçimi Davranışları Ölçeği-II puan ortalaması 123.50±18.63 olarak saptanmıştır. Bu çalışmada; dismenore varlığı, yemeğin tadına bakmadan tuz kullanma, annenin premenstrual sendrom yaşaması kız öğrencilerde premenstrual sendrom prevelansını etkileyen faktörler olarak belirlenmiştir. Ayrıca Sağlıklı Yaşam Biçimi Davranışları Ölçeği-II manevi gelişim ve beslenme davranışları alt boyutlarının da premenstrual sendrom prevelansını etkilediği saptanmıştır. Sonuç olarak, üniversite öğrencilerinde premenstrual sendrom prevelansının yüksek, sağlıklı yaşam biçimi davranışlarının ise orta düzeyde olduğu görülmüştür. Premenstrual sendromla baş etmek ve sağlıklı yaşam biçimi davranışları geliştirmek için kadınların adölesan çağdan itibaren ele alınması gerekmektedir.