AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Breast cancer on sexuality and body image issues

For women, diagnosis of breast cancer can impact on their feelings of wellbeing and attractiveness. Breast cancer is a dreadful life experience, as it can bring up feelings of grief, anger and fear. This is because breasts represent beauty and femininity in our culture. Most women can deal with this crisis without developing major psychiatric problems, but many women can’t.

Usually, choices of treatment are influenced by a woman’s age, her image, her hopes and fears. For instance, some women might select the option of breast conservation and reconstruction over a mastectomy for cosmetics reasons as it gives a new sense of control over their treatment and often brings a new confidence and helps them to feel comfortable with their body image again.

In the meantime, some women with similar diagnosis may choose to go with mastectomy to remove all affected tissues without having the effect on their body image and sexuality attractiveness.

Sexual problems after breast cancer can be affected by many factors. Chemotherapy treatment can affect on a women’s hormone levels, which may have some impact on a women’s sexual interest and/or response. Therefore, women with breast cancer should spend sometime selecting the right medical team. She should feel comfortable to discuss any issues with her clinical team. The information on how chemotherapy and hormone treatment affect a woman’s sex life should be discussed. In addition, doctor’s attitude towards discussing sexual issues is also vital as it can prevent anxiety and sadness.