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The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer

BACKGROUND: Despite the growing body of literature which highlights the potential for significant and enduring side-effects of prostate cancer treatment, there is limited research exploring the experience of living with the treatment-induced side-effects such as sexual dysfunction, and their repercu...

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Autores principales: Hanly, Narelle, Mireskandari, Shab, Juraskova, Ilona
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4124511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25073798
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2490-14-56
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author Hanly, Narelle
Mireskandari, Shab
Juraskova, Ilona
author_facet Hanly, Narelle
Mireskandari, Shab
Juraskova, Ilona
author_sort Hanly, Narelle
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Despite the growing body of literature which highlights the potential for significant and enduring side-effects of prostate cancer treatment, there is limited research exploring the experience of living with the treatment-induced side-effects such as sexual dysfunction, and their repercussions for men and their partners. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore factors influencing psychosexual adjustment, self-perception, and unmet information and support needs of prostate cancer patients and their partners. METHODS: Twenty-one men, recruited via a prostate cancer support group newsletter, participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews, which were subjected to thematic analysis. RESULTS: The qualitative analysis revealed three inter-connected main themes which contributed to men’s psychosexual adjustment: i) Psychosexual impact, ii) Communication and support, and iii) Integration process. Men reported distressing sexual and urinary difficulties, tainted self-perception and altered intimate relationships. Receiving adequate information and support, and having good communication with their doctors and partners facilitated better adjustment to prostate cancer treatment. Coming to terms with the significant impact of treatment had involved making lifestyle changes, coping with emotional struggles and striving to accept and integrate their post-treatment “new normal” self and sexual life. CONCLUSIONS: The importance of adequate communication with health professionals and partners, especially regarding treatment effects on sexual function and rehabilitation options, was highlighted as a key factor facilitating the adjustment process. Prostate cancer patients would benefit from improved access to timely and tailored information and decision-making resources, ongoing multidisciplinary care, and support groups, as well as appropriate referrals for sexual and psychological counselling.
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spelling pubmed-41245112014-08-08 The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer Hanly, Narelle Mireskandari, Shab Juraskova, Ilona BMC Urol Research Article BACKGROUND: Despite the growing body of literature which highlights the potential for significant and enduring side-effects of prostate cancer treatment, there is limited research exploring the experience of living with the treatment-induced side-effects such as sexual dysfunction, and their repercussions for men and their partners. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore factors influencing psychosexual adjustment, self-perception, and unmet information and support needs of prostate cancer patients and their partners. METHODS: Twenty-one men, recruited via a prostate cancer support group newsletter, participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews, which were subjected to thematic analysis. RESULTS: The qualitative analysis revealed three inter-connected main themes which contributed to men’s psychosexual adjustment: i) Psychosexual impact, ii) Communication and support, and iii) Integration process. Men reported distressing sexual and urinary difficulties, tainted self-perception and altered intimate relationships. Receiving adequate information and support, and having good communication with their doctors and partners facilitated better adjustment to prostate cancer treatment. Coming to terms with the significant impact of treatment had involved making lifestyle changes, coping with emotional struggles and striving to accept and integrate their post-treatment “new normal” self and sexual life. CONCLUSIONS: The importance of adequate communication with health professionals and partners, especially regarding treatment effects on sexual function and rehabilitation options, was highlighted as a key factor facilitating the adjustment process. Prostate cancer patients would benefit from improved access to timely and tailored information and decision-making resources, ongoing multidisciplinary care, and support groups, as well as appropriate referrals for sexual and psychological counselling. BioMed Central 2014-07-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4124511/ /pubmed/25073798 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2490-14-56 Text en Copyright © 2014 Hanly et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hanly, Narelle
Mireskandari, Shab
Juraskova, Ilona
The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer
title The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer
title_full The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer
title_fullStr The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer
title_full_unstemmed The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer
title_short The struggle towards ‘the New Normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer
title_sort struggle towards ‘the new normal’: a qualitative insight into psychosexual adjustment to prostate cancer
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4124511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25073798
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2490-14-56
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