Contemporary Sexuality - April 2009 - (Page 4) Sex After Cancer continued from page 1 the bedroom. “I wished someone had talked to me about how to prepare my body for intimate relations again,” she says. “There’s a significant element of regret. Yes, they’re happy to be alive. But they say, ‘If only I didn’t have sexual problems.’” — John Mulhall Survival rates improve, sexuality education efforts don’t As early detection methods improve, more young adults like Felder are being diagnosed with cancer. And surviving. About 2.2 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 44 have been diagnosed with cancer, according to the National Health Information Survey of 2001. In a paper titled “Reproductive Complications and Sexual Dysfunction in the Cancer Patient,” Leslie Schover, PhD, extrapolates that about “2.5 million adults of childbearing age are cancer survivors.” Schover, a researcher at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, published the paper in the book Cancer Survivorship: Today and Tomorrow. She notes that some cancer treatments cause infertility and many oncologists fail to give men information about sperm banking. In additon, some cancers target or impact reproductive functions: cervical, uterine, ovarian, prostate, testicular, rectal, bowel and bladder cancers. “Despite increased attention in the past 20 years to sexual dysfunction as a consequence of cancer treatment, pitifully little progress has been Leslie Schover John Mulhall made in developing cost-effective treatment programs to alleviate these symptoms,” writes Schover, who spoke at the 2008 AASECT conference. John Mulhall, MD, director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Male Sexual & Reproductive Medicine Program, is equally blunt. “Practically zero attention is paid to it,” Mulhall says. “[As a profession], we do a horrible, horrible job.” That’s because at the time of diagnosis, oncologists and other specialists are focusing on saving the patient’s life. And they’ve gotten better at it. Since the mid-1970s, five-year cancer survival rates have increased from 50 percent to 66 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. With fewer people dying from the disease, nonprofits focused on the needs of young cancer survivors have emerged. The Lance Armstrong Foundation — named after the seven-time Tour de France winner — may be the most well known. But there’s also Planet Cancer, Teens Living With Cancer, Young Adults With Cancer, Group Loop and the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. “The survivorship movement is really gaining momentum,” Mulhall says. Anne Katz, RN, PhD, a clinical nurse specialist and sexuality counselor at CancerCare Manitoba and author of Breaking the Silence on Cancer and Sexuality: A Handbook for Health Care Professionals, agrees. “There’s been a big shift in thinking about cancer,” Katz says. “The medical profession used www.aasect.org | April 2009 Vol. 43, No. 4 4 Contemporary Sexuality http://www.aasect.org
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