WUOT's Carole Myers: Up to 40% of women report issues with sexual function. For female cancer survivors, this rate exceeds 60% in some sources, according to the American Cancer Society, Cancer Treatment affects sex organs, sexual function, or body image. I'm joined today by Dr Noel Arring, a nurse researcher and faculty member at the University of Tennessee College of Nursing, to discuss strategies for coping with sexual function issues. Welcome Dr Arring,
Noel Arring:Thank you for having me.
Today we're focusing in on sexual health among female cancer survivors. Why is this important?
Because sexual health is crucial to being human, and it often gets relegated, especially in the cancer trajectory, as a secondary issue, when in fact, it's part of being a human and can impact so many aspects of a woman's life. This is somewhat new in addressing the fact that it's so vital. It is, I think, sexual health for women, in general, and specifically for cancer survivors, has been put into the back burner. It hasn't really been an issue. It's been a long term concern that's really been unaddressed. There's been a fair amount of evidence and work in the space with male sexual health, and we have things like Viagra in the space for female sexual health. We haven't really had those milestones because we haven't put our energy there.
Please share issues related to sexual problems for women that are cancer survivors.
A lot of times, what I hear from the women that I work with is that their experience first, when I ask them about it, it's the first time many have even been asked. Often, what they're finding is, with cancer treatment, many of those treatments actually suppress estrogen, and what that does is, for many women, puts them into menopause, oftentimes early, and that can actually lead to a lot of different things, including vaginal symptoms. We see things like vaginal dryness, pain during intercourse, burning, itching, all of those things, and if it goes untreated, can cause all those different problems for other women, we have issues. We call them partner issues. I don't know if that's a great term, but because of body changes, physical changes the women face, sometimes they have different issues with their partners, either their own acceptance or their partner's acceptance. With that and having different roles played in relationship to sex. The other issues that we see with women with cancer are actually issues with sexual desire. The number one reported issue with sexual function is a desire to have sex and then body image I had already mentioned. For many women who go through cancer and cancer treatment, there are physical changes that happen, but there's also the issue that happens when you have cancer, something that is life threatening, that your body has caused.
Are there effective treatments for the symptoms that women experience?
There is hope for all four of the things that I just mentioned, but they're definitely for the two vaginal symptoms we have. First line treatment would be vaginal moisturizer, evidence based, recommended for any woman who is suffering from vaginal diarist or pain during intercourse. The one thing I do want to make sure is that there's a difference between vaginal moisturizer and lubricant. Vaginal moisturizer is literally like putting face lotion on and it treats and actually heals that tissue lubrication, or lubricants are used during sexual activity, and I would recommend both. The other thing that I would say is that for intimate partner issues, there are treatments, there's couples counseling. All of that is actually very much evidence based.
What parting guidance do you offer to women cancer survivors? What would you say to them in your office?
The first thing I would say to them is that there are treatments available and that you should really talk to either your primary care or your oncology provider about that.
This transcript has been lightly edited for content.
