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Sexual quality of life after gynaecological cancer: what young women want

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Abstract

Purpose

Psychosexual distress is known to be a common complication of treatment for gynaecological cancer (GC), affecting the sexual quality of life (SQoL) for an increasing number of young gynaecological cancer survivors (YGCS). The SQoL in YGCS study aimed to identify strategies that are acceptable and helpful to YGCS in protecting and improving SQoL, using a salutogenic approach.

Methods

A qualitative study was undertaken with young women aged 18–45 and pre- or perimenopausal at diagnosis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on Zoom and a thematic analysis of transcripts was completed in NVivo.

Results

Fifteen interviews with YGCS revealed three themes for strategy development: psychosexual education, psychosocial support, and healthcare policy and strategy to establish SQoL as standard care in gynaecologic oncology.

Conclusion

The strategies put forward by YGCS showed the need for a holistic, patient-centric, and multidisciplinary approach to SQoL. A better understanding of the strategies acceptable to YGCS, including the importance of using a trauma-informed approach to communication and care, can help healthcare providers play a vital role in protecting and improving SQoL.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the individuals who participated in the study for sharing their experiences and the organisations who assisted in recruitment. Special thanks to Ovarian Cancer Australia and the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health, University of the Sunshine Coast, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sunshine Coast, QLD, 4556, Australia

    Melanie Roussin, Anita Hamilton, John Lowe & Lisa Martin

Authors
  1. Melanie Roussin
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  2. Anita Hamilton
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  3. John Lowe
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  4. Lisa Martin
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Project administration was undertaken by MR and project supervision was completed by JL, AH, and LM. Material preparation, ethics application, recruitment, data collection and analysis were performed by MR. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MR and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melanie Roussin.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

The research received ethical approval by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of the Sunshine Coast (S201448).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent for publication

All authors consent to publish. Consent was also obtained from all participants and all data have been de-identified.

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Roussin, M., Hamilton, A., Lowe, J. et al. Sexual quality of life after gynaecological cancer: what young women want. Qual Life Res 33, 679–689 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-023-03553-4

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