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Sexual Function, Body Image and Quality of Life of Women with Advanced Cancer

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Abstract

Background

Few studies have focused exclusively on the sexuality and body image of women with advanced cancer and the physical and emotional impact of cancer treatment on sexual function.

Objective

This study aimed to examine sexual dysfunction, quality of life (QOL) and body image in women with stage III-IV breast, colorectal, and gynecologic cancer.

Methods

Sixty women completed the Female Sexual Function Index, the Body Image Scale, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory. A Spearman correlation test was conducted to examine the associations among scale scores.

Results

Body image problems were inversely associated with global QOL (rs = − 0.357, p = 0.006) and functional scores (rs = − 0.489, p < 0.001), and positively associated with cancer symptom severity (rs = 0.394, p = 0.002). Body image problems were inversely associated with satisfaction with sexual life for both sexually active (rs = − 0.576, p = 0.005) and inactive women (rs = − 0.377, p = 0.023). In sexually active women, poor body image was inversely associated with sexual function (rs = − 0.544, p = 0.009), but unrelated to global QOL (rs = 0.304, p = 0.181).

Conclusions

More than quantifying sexual dysfunction, it is important to understand the reasons for disruption in sexual activity. The absence of an association between sexual function and QOL and the association between body image and QOL suggest that QOL and sexual function are distinct experiences, and that QOL scales are not enough to detect treatment-induced sexual changes, which are not addressed by health professionals.

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Funding

No funding was received for conducting this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto, Rua das Taipas 135, 4050-091, Porto, Portugal

    Luciana Silveira Campos

  2. Department of Emergency, Nossa Senhora da Conceição Hospital, Avenida Francisco Trein, 596, 91350-200, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Luciana Silveira Campos

  3. Department of Palliative Care, Nossa Senhora da Conceição Hospital, Avenida Francisco Trein, 596, 91350-200, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Simone Pellin De Nardi

  4. Department of Gynecology, Nossa Senhora da Conceição Hospital, Avenida Francisco Trein, 596, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Leo Francisco Limberger

  5. Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies (CIEG), ISCSP University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Jose Manoel Caldas

  6. Rua General Lima e Silva 1010/306, CEP: 90050-102, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Luciana Silveira Campos

Authors
  1. Luciana Silveira Campos
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  2. Simone Pellin De Nardi
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  3. Leo Francisco Limberger
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  4. Jose Manoel Caldas
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Contributions

Dr. Luciana Campos is the primary author of the manuscript. She conceived the study, made the data curation and along with the co-authors, executed the study, analyzed and interpretated the data, wrote and edited the original draft. Dr. Simone de Nardi helped with the study execution, reviewed the original draft and contributed to key portions of the final manuscript. Dr. Leo Limberger helped in the study conception, data interpretation, reviewed and made key contributions to the final manuscript. Dr. Jose Manoel Caldas is an expert gender researcher and the senior author of the manuscript. He oversaw all por-tions of the study design and implementation, reviewed, edited the original manuscritpt and made key contributions to the final manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luciana Silveira Campos.

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Conflicts of interest/Competing interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Committee of the hospital (IRB000105, number:17,102).

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Written consent was obtained from all participants prior participation.

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A consent for publication was obtained at the same time as the informed consent to participate.

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Campos, L.S., De Nardi, S.P., Limberger, L.F. et al. Sexual Function, Body Image and Quality of Life of Women with Advanced Cancer. Sex Disabil 40, 141–151 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-021-09722-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-021-09722-y

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