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The Impact of Reproductive Cancers on Women’s Mental Health

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Women's Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan

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Abstract

Today, one in three women in the USA will develop cancer in her lifetime. Women with breast and gynecologic cancers account for 30 % of all cancer survivors. Survivorship begins with a woman’s initial diagnosis and continues through her active treatment, its long-term side effects, and for the rest of her life. Because of advances in early detection and treatment, cancer is quickly becoming viewed as a chronic illness associated with long-term side effects of treatment, including decreased functional capacity, pain, fatigue, and decreased fertility and sexual function. The treatment itself, and even the diagnosis of cancer, leaves many women vulnerable to changes in their mental health, particularly anxiety and depression. The psychological impact of a cancer diagnosis varies with disease origin, age at diagnosis, physiologic alterations as a consequence of surgery, and the stage to which the disease has advanced. In this chapter, we discuss issues that often have a psychological impact on a woman after she receives a cancer diagnosis, specifically addressing the needs of reproductive cancer survivors. These issues are the physiologic, psychosocial, reproductive, and sexual changes experienced by female cancer survivors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Doreen L. Wiggins M.D., F.A.C.O.G., F.A.C.S. (Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Surgery Director) & Carmen Monzon M.D. (Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior)

  2. Cancer Survivorship Program, Women’s Medicine Collaborative, The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, USA

    Doreen L. Wiggins M.D., F.A.C.O.G., F.A.C.S. (Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Surgery Director)

  3. Women’s Behavioral Medicine, Women’s Medicine Collaborative, The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, USA

    Carmen Monzon M.D. (Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior)

  4. Women’s Medicine Collaborative, The Miriam Hospital, Providence, RI, USA

    Beth R. Hott B.A.

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  1. Doreen L. Wiggins M.D., F.A.C.O.G., F.A.C.S.
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  2. Carmen Monzon M.D.
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  3. Beth R. Hott B.A.
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Correspondence to Doreen L. Wiggins M.D., F.A.C.O.G., F.A.C.S. .

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  1. The Center for Postpartum Health, Sherman Oaks, California, USA

    Diana Lynn Barnes

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© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Wiggins, D.L., Monzon, C., Hott, B.R. (2014). The Impact of Reproductive Cancers on Women’s Mental Health. In: Barnes, D. (eds) Women's Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05116-1_15

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