| Background: Depression is a mood related disorder that makes persistent feeling of sorrow and sadness and loss of pleasure and interest in
depressed persons. The prevalence of depression in women is higher than in men. It is the main reason cause of disease-related disability among
women. The current study is a cross sectional analysis that measures the depression incomes in two various groups of women living in Kurdistan
province of Iran. The first group including those women, whom were circumcised and the second group, including control group.
Methods: Persian-translated version of Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) was administered among two groups of women living in Kurdistan province of Iran. The gathered data was analyzed by software package of SPSS version 23.
Results: A total number of 100 women (50 circumcised and 50 non-circumcised) participated in the study. The mean age of circumcised
women was 30.6 ± 7.51 and the mean age of non-circumcised was 27.3 ± 7.17. Although the difference of depression outcomes between two
groups was not significant (p-value= 0.907), the number of women characterized having at least mild depression among circumcised-women was
greater than non-circumcised women. In addition, the measured severe depression in circumcised-women was greater than non-circumcised
women (24% versus 20%).
Conclusion: The study indicated that most of participants in the study were suffering from depression (Both groups). However, the study
did not show a significance difference between the two groups of women living in the area. Though the FGM/C has negative consequences on
the libido and genital behavior of women, this study showed it apparently does not have an essential impact on the women depression in the
area. One may interpret this phenomenon such a way that the FGM/C either does not play important role in the depression scale of women or
the depression scale of women in this area is affected with other factors such as satisfaction of life, spirituality, sexuality, aggression, intellectual
issues and emotional attachments. As a result, these issues cause the women to suffer from a high prevalence of depression related to the stresses
of other “planes of being” such as material, emotional, intellectual or spiritual. |