Cancer et sexualité : le couple, un déterminant trop souvent négligé

Breast cancer patients' experience and wishes regarding communication on sexual health: the BEROSE study

BEROSE is a single-center observational study, which aimed to determine the proportion of women with breast cancer who received information on sexual health from health professionals throughout their whole care pathway. A total of 318 women with all stages of breast cancer (30% metastatic) and at different time interval from diagnosis (up to 7 years) participated to the survey. Sixty-five percent of women reported that they had not received any information about sexual health over the whole care. Increased awareness among the healthcare professionals and particularly the oncology community is needed to discuss sexual health in women with breast cancer.

« We-ness, we-disease » : impact sur la résilience sexuelle des couples confrontés au cancer du sein

Cet article présente notre travail de recherche, effectué en vue de l’obtention du Diplôme interuniversitaire de sexologie.

Objectif :L’objectif de notre étude est d’observer le lien entre le sens du « we-ness, we-disease » et la résilience sexuelle du couple confronté au cancer du sein.

Matériel et méthodes : La méthodologie a été qualitative et observationnelle. Cinq couples ont été inclus dans l’étude, et ont chacun participé à un entretien de couple. Les retranscriptions verbatim des entretiens ont été analysées grâce à la « We-ness Coding Scale » (Reid) et à une analyse de contenu thématique de la vie intime et sexuelle.

Résultats : Pour trois couples, l’analyse de contenu des entretiens montre un lien entre un niveau élevé du sens du « we-disease » et la résilience sexuelle du couple. Pour les deux autres couples, nous n’observons pas de lien entre le niveau du sens du « we-disease » et la résilience sexuelle. Des antécédents individuels — propres à la patiente et à son partenaire — et dyadiques, pourraient en partie expliquer nos observations.

Conclusion : De futures recherches, menées avec des échantillons de population plus conséquents, pourraient permettre d’étudier plus précisément le lien entre le sens du « we-ness, we-disease » et un modèle de résilience sexuelle des couples, après un cancer du sein.

[Perceptions and attitudes of nurses on emotional and sexual lives of cancer patients]

INTRODUCTION

Despite the frequency of sexual issues during cancer care, the majority of nurses do not bring up the topic with their patients. The purpose of this study is to encourage nurses in oncology and hematology units on how to better participate in the assessment of the well-being of cancer patients as part of their sexual health.

METHODS

Using an interview guide, we conducted a qualitative study by interviewing twenty nurses working in the Oncology and Hematology Units of four Belgian hospitals. The twenty semi-structured interviews were transcribed, and we performed a content analysis of the data collected.

RESULTS

Sexuality is still a taboo topic, sexual dysfunction is undervalued, nurses lack knowledge on the topic which create many barriers to sexual health assessment. Obstacles are intrinsic or extrinsic towards nurses: prejudices, embarrassment, lack of evaluation tools, lack of support, resources, the environment is not always adequate. This is linked to the lack of knowledge of side effects of treatments, the lack of know-how, well-being and reflexivity. The assessment of sexual health is however part of their role. Nurses would like to have tools and better education to address the various shortcoming on how to address sexual health.

CONCLUSION

Nurses must acknowledge the existence of sexual health issues in cancer patients by rectifying their perceptions of sexuality, improving their knowledge and management of care, by addressing the issue of sexual health early enough.