NEW YORK — While it is well understood that prostate cancer (PCa) and its treatment can have significant and pervasive sexual side effects for the male patients, less attention has been paid to their partners.
A recent study led by New York University and the Manhattan VA Healthcare pointed out that partner needs are not well understood, and most resources do not incorporate partner priorities.
In a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, the authors said their objective was to perform a qualitative study to identify unmet sexual needs of patients and female partners after PCa diagnosis.1
To do that, the team, which also included participation from Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, conducted a qualitative study of posts to the Inspire Us TOO Prostate Cancer Online Support and Discussion Community.
Researchers indicated 6,193 posts in the Sexual Health & Intimacy forum of the community, of which 661 posts were from female authors. A random sample of 10% of posts from female partners and an equal number of randomly selected posts from male patients were analyzed.
“Multiple themes emerged that were unique to female partners of PCa survivors,” according to the results. “These included expanding the sexual repertoire, feeling invisible, contextualizing sexual intimacy within the broader picture of survival and addressing relationship concerns.”
The study noted that patients and their partners “also shared common sexual health themes, including coming to terms with changes in sexual function and frustration with clinicians. Both patients and their partners use online health communities to get support and share their experiences with sexual recovery and use of sexual aids. Psychosocial treatments were infrequently mentioned, and may be particularly helpful to address partner concerns.”
The authors added that a common concern for couples was not receiving sufficient information from healthcare providers regarding sexual side effects from PCa and its treatment.
The study’s strength included leveraging a unique data source to address an understudied topic of sexual health concerns among partners after PCa diagnosis. On the other hand, the authors cautioned that members of an online community might not be representative of all couples facing PCa. “Also, this analysis is limited to female partners of patients with PCa, and further study is underway to examine the sexual health needs among gay and bisexual couples,” they added.
“Both patients and female partners have many unmet sexual health needs during PCa survivorship, and designing interventions to incorporate partner perspectives may improve the management of sexual side effects of PCa for couples,” the researchers concluded.
- Li R, Wittmann D, Nelson CJ, Salter CA, Mulhall JP, Byrne N, Nolasco TS, Ness M, Gupta N, Cassidy C, Crisostomo-Wynne T, Loeb S. Unmet Sexual Health Needs of Patients and Female Partners Following Diagnosis and Treatment for Prostate Cancer. J Sex Med. 2022 Dec;19(12):1797-1803. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.08.195. Epub 2022 Oct 3. PMID: 36202730.
