Читать книгу The Lovin' Ain't Over for Women with Cancer - Ralph Alterowitz - Страница 23

Along with understanding the effects of various treatments on sexuality, women should know that the side effects differ in severity from one woman to the next. One woman may have nausea and another vaginal pain. And even if both of them have vaginal pain, it may be more painful for one than the other. Age, the level of wellbeing and many other factors contribute to how much a woman may feel the side-effects. Even the degree to which a given woman’s sexuality will be affected varies among women. Table 2 lists the likely effects of different cancer treatments.

A 2007 booklet from the American Cancer Society, Sexuality and Cancer for the Woman Who Has Cancer and Her Partner, has a guide, shown in Table 3, that shows how frequently some of the common cancer treatments cause sexual problems. The chart lists six fairly common sexual problems. For example, as shown, chemotherapy sometimes causes low sexual desire and reduced vaginal size, but rarely affects achieving orgasm. Of course, the effect of inducing premature menopause can result in a broader range of sexual problems. A woman may have serious psychological issues related to body image and identity after a mastectomy, but the mastectomy itself causes few physical sexual problems, as shown in the table. However, arousal issues and the relation of breast arousal to arousal of other sexual organs should not be minimized. Combinations of treatments may make some of the side effects more difficult to handle.

Many women noted that they continued to have sexual relations during the treatment period. Side effects did cause sexual problems that reduced the frequency of sexual relations. The two primary reasons women gave for continuing to have sexual relations during treatment were that they needed physical bonding with their partners and that they wanted to take care of the sexual needs of their partners.