In early April, the first guidelines on care for sexual problems were published by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).
These guidelines are included in their new Survivorship Guidelines.
Since cancer survivorship begins as soon as someone receives a cancer diagnosis, the guidelines can improve care for both patients who are still planning their cancer treatment and those who are undergoing cancer treatment or have finished active therapy.
Sexual problems are common among cancer patients
Sexual problems are, unfortunately, a very common side effect of cancer treatment. Sexual problems affect at least half of patients who've had prostate, breast or a gynecologic cancer; they also can occur after chemotherapy or radiation to the pelvic area or brain.
The problems are usually caused by physical damage to the nerves, blood vessels and hormones involved in a normal sexual response, although emotional issues also play a role.
Continue reading Sexual problems and cancer: Don't ignore it.
I have spent more than 30 years of my career trying to help cancer patients prevent or overcome sexual problems
related to treatment. Although we better understand the causes of those
problems, and have a few medical options to restore firm erections,
most men still don't get accurate information when they need it.
To try to solve this situation, my research team has been working with a small business grant from the National Cancer Institute
(and our small business partner Paul Martinetti, M.D., of Digital
Science Technologies L.L.C.), to create a website that will provide
education, self-help suggestions and advice on getting the best medical
care for men's cancer-related sexual problems.
In
creating the website, we interviewed 48 men of varying ages and
ethnicities with different types of cancer. We asked them to review
drafts of the website and report their experiences.
Alarming findings
The
first, rather discouraging finding was that many men had never been
given a chance to discuss this important part of life after cancer. Some
valued the interview so much that they sent emails or called back to
personally thank Evan Odensky, the senior behavioral research
coordinator on our project.
Another common pattern was that men
didn't realize how important a sexual problem could be until they
experienced it. When they were planning their cancer treatment, 62% worried just a little or not at all that cancer treatment would damage their sex life.
Preserving
sexual function was a major factor in choosing a treatment for only
13%. At the time of the interview, however, 79% of men rated their
sexual function as moderately to very important.
Continue reading Using the Internet to Help Men With Cancer-Related Sexual Problems.
