Читать книгу The Lovin' Ain't Over for Women with Cancer - Ralph Alterowitz - Страница 24

Table 4 is an overview of the emotional landscape of women and their partners, showing the range of psychological effects that each may experience. Dealing with these feelings plus the physiological changes can put a couple under considerable pressure and disrupt their daily balance. In effect, the couple must adjust to a new status quo.

In looking at the table, you may notice that quite often, the partner expresses emotions similar to those of the patient. Yet the two may have widely different perceptions and mismatched expectations. For instance, both partners may feel frustrated in their attempts to get on with life. One example may be intimacy. One partner may want to do what he or she believes the partner wants, except that “feeling sexual” cannot come at will. Unrealized expectations can kill the romance. Unfortunately, adjustments must come in the heat of battling the side effects. It is analogous to trying to rebuild a town while the shelling is still going on.

The situation is more difficult for those couples that had problems with intimacy prior to cancer. Incompatibility that has not been worked through is still there. Couples must deal with the related issues to have a good foundation for an intimacy that works.

The effects of cancer and its treatment can impact the whole person. Prominent psychological side effects may include mood swings, anxiety, and depression. The change in appearance due to the loss of one or both breasts as the result of a mastectomy often has a profound effect on the woman. The loss of reproductive organs may have a similar effect on a woman with gynecological cancer. Her perception of herself as a woman and as a sexual partner may be drastically altered, resulting in a negative body image and in withdrawal from contact with other people, especially her partner. Breast reconstruction surgery may alleviate some of the negative feelings about her appearance for the mastectomy patient, but since reconstruction does not restore normal sensation, she may still feel that intimacy is different than before.

Four psychological side effects of cancer therapy may undermine the confidence and self-esteem of women during and after treatment for cancer. These conditions effectively create barriers to restarting the couple’s physical intimacy. Together, these conditions can be represented by the acronym ARID. The ARID Complex consists of anxiety disorder, feelings of rejection, identity disorder, and depression. Individually, these are psychological ailments; if they come in combination, patients may experience trauma-related symptoms of stress akin to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer patients may be at risk for PTSD because “the physical and mental shock of having a life-threatening disease, of receiving treatment for cancer, and living with repeated threats to one's body and life are traumatic experiences for many cancer patients.” Whether a person suffers some form of PTSD related to cancer treatment depends on many factors and is being studied at research facilities throughout the country.