Breast cancer and sexuality: an explorative study on psychological and affective aspects

Journal title RIVISTA DI SESSUOLOGIA CLINICA
Author/s Federica Giampà, Stefano Magno, Laura Agostini, Annalisa Di Micco, Claudia Maggiore, Bianca Maria De Cesaris, Roberta Rossi, Chiara Simonelli, Filippo Maria Nimbi
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/2 Language Italian
Pages 16 P. 5-20 File size 195 KB
DOI 10.3280/RSC2021-002001
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Breast cancer is the most frequent form of cancer and, even today, although there has been an improvement in prognosis, it remains the leading cause of cancer death in women. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of life and investigate the psychological, sexological and affective aspects in women with breast cancer, comparing them with a control group and identifying possible differences. The protocol, consisting of self-report tools, was administered to 97 women divided into two groups: the clinical group (n = 44 women with breast can-cer) and the control group (n = 53 postmenopausal women). The analyzes sought to investigate which domains determined the significance in the comparison be-tween the two groups. Sexual (FSFI) and distress (FSDS) functioning, psychological (SCL-90-R) and emotional (PANAS) functioning were assessed. Women with iatrogenic menopausal breast cancer showed greater sexual diffi-culties than women in natural menopause. Similarly, symptoms such as anxiety and depression are present to a greater or lesser extent in women in natural meno-pause, while they acquire greater value in those in which menopause has been in-duced early. The data that emerge from the study have significant implications both for future research and for the clinic, underlining how the biopsychosocial perspective is fundamental to fully understand the personal and relational experi-ence connected to the pathology.

Keywords: breast cancer, sexuality, femininity, welfare, psychological aspects, adulthood.

  1. Anand P., Kunnumakara A.B., Sundaram C. et al. (2008). Cancer is a Preventable Disease that Requires Major Lifestyle Changes. Pharmaceutical Research, 25(9): 2097-116.
  2. Avis N.E., Crawford S., Manuel J. (2015). Qualità della vita tra le donne più giovani con carcinoma mammario. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 23 (15): 3322-3330.
  3. Baqutayan S.M.S. (2012). The Effect of Anxiety on Breast Cancer Patients. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 34(2): 119-123. DOI: 10.4103/0253-7176.10177
  4. Boswell E., Dizon Don S. (2015). Breast cancer and sexual function. Translational Andrology and Urology, 4(2): 160-168.
  5. Campbell H., Woodgate R. (2015). The psychosocial experiences of women with breast cancer across the lifespan: a systematic review protocol. JBI Database System Rev Implement Rep., 13(1): 112-21.
  6. Debasweta P., Chitra V., Kesavankutty N. et al. (2017). Prevalence of Depression in Breast Cancer Patients and its Association with their Quality of Life: A Cross-sectional Observational Study, Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 23(3): 268-273. DOI: 10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_6_1
  7. Feng Y., Spezia M., Huang S. et al. (2018). Breast cancer development and progression: Risk factors, cancer stem cells, signaling pathways, genomics, and molecular pathogenesis. Genes & Diseases, 5(2): 77-106.
  8. Frost M.H., Schaid D.J., Sellers T.A. et al. (2000). Long-term satisfaction and psychological and social function following bilateral prophylactic mastectomy. JAMA, 284(3): 319-24.
  9. Koçan S., Gürsoy A. (2016). Body image of women with breast cancer after mastectomy: a qualitative research. The Journal of Breast Health, 12(4): 145-150.
  10. Mens M.G., Helgeson V.S., Lembersky B. et al. (2016). Randomized Psychosocial Interventions for Breast Cancer: Impact on Life Purpose. Psychooncology, 25(6): 618-625.
  11. Muszalik M., Kolucka-Pluta M., Kedziora-Kornatowska K. et al. (2016). Quality of life of women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy using the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue questionnaire. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 20(11): 1489-1494. DOI: 10.2147/CIA.S11353
  12. Partridge A.H., Pagani O., Abulkhair O. et al. (2014). First International consensus guidelines for breast cancer in young women, Consensus Development Conference, 24 aprile 2014.
  13. Passildas J., Collard O., Savove A.M. et al. (2019). Impact of Chemotherapy-induced Menopause in Women of Childbearing Age With Non-metastatic Breast Cancer - Preliminary Results From the MENOCOR Study. Clin Breast Cancer, 19(1): 74-84.
  14. Paterson C., Legancher C.A., Donovan K.A. et al. (2016). Body Image in Younger Breast Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review. Cancer Nurs., 39(1): E39-E58. DOI: 10.1097/NCC.000000000000025
  15. Rabinowitz B. (2019). Psychological Aspects of Breast Reconstruction. In: Urban C., Rietjens M., El-Tamer M., Sacchini V.S., Oncoplastic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery. Cham: Springer, pp. 801-807.
  16. Rinaldi V. (2007). Tumore al seno. Uno studio psicosociale sulle donne operate, Università degli Studi di Trieste, Trieste.
  17. Ristevska-Dimitrovska G., Filov I., Rajchanovska D., Stefanovski P., Dejanova B. (2015). Resilience and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients. Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences, 3(4): 727-731.
  18. Sharma N., Purkayastha A. (2017). Factors Affecting Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients: A Descriptive and Cross-sectional Study with Review of Literature. Journal of Mid-Life Health, 8(2): 75-83.
  19. Sun Y.S., Zhao Z., Yang Z. et al. (2017). Risk Factors and Preventions of Breast Cancer. International Journal of Biological Sciences, 13(11): 1387-1397.
  20. Wei D., Liu X., Chen Y. et al. (2016). Effectiveness of Physical, Psychological, Social, and Spiritual Intervention in Breast Cancer Survivors: An Integrative Review. Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing, 3(3): 226-232. DOI: 10.4103/2347-5625.18981
  21. Zhang B., Wu J., Zheng R. et al. (2018). Evaluation of menopausal status among breast cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea. Chin J Cancer Res, 30(4): 468-476.

Federica Giampà, Stefano Magno, Laura Agostini, Annalisa Di Micco, Claudia Maggiore, Bianca Maria De Cesaris, Roberta Rossi, Chiara Simonelli, Filippo Maria Nimbi, Tumore al seno e sessualità: uno studio esplorativo sugli aspetti psicologici e affettivi in "RIVISTA DI SESSUOLOGIA CLINICA" 2/2021, pp 5-20, DOI: 10.3280/RSC2021-002001