An examination of the sexual functions of patients who underwent a gynecologic cancer operation and received brachytherapy

OBJECTIVE: This study was planned as a descriptive study for the purpose of examining the sexual functions of patients' who underwent a gynecological operation and received brachytherapy. METHODS: The study was conducted with 118 women who attended the Radiation Oncology Unit at Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital in Izmir Province for Gynecological Oncology follow-up, who participated voluntarily and were assigned using the random sampling method. The participants were married, sexually active, had a diagnosis of gynecologic cancer, underwent an operation and received brachytherapy for four months after the operation. The Individual Identification Form and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) were used as the data collection tools. RESULTS: The average age of women who participated in study was 50.90±7.98 and 41.5% of them had completed primary school. About 60% of the participants had cervical cancer and 69.5% had a total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy. The FSFI average score was determined to be 15.77±8.71. It was found that 97.5% of the participants received fewer than 30 points from the scale and these participants thus experienced sexual dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: According to the findings obtained from the study, almost all thewomen that had an operation as a result of adiagnosis of gynecologic cancer and received brachytherapy experienced sexual dysfunction.