This episode features Isabel S. van der Meer (Department of Research and Development, The Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation, Utrecht, The Netherlands).
What was already known?
- The diagnosis of advanced cancer and subsequent treatments can have negative implications for sexual health
- Changes in sexual health of patients with advanced cancer emerge from physical, mental and emotional transformations, but the importance of sexual health remains relatively unchanged.
- The majority of healthcare professionals find it challenging to discuss sexual health in the context of palliative care.
What this paper adds?
- Patients and their partner remain relatively stable in most aspects of sexual health in the last 18 months of the patients' life.
- Patients' sexual desire significantly decreases in their last 18 months of life.
- Patients with worse physical functioning and/or prostate cancer reported a greater decline in most aspects of sexual health.
- Patients' sexual desire, activity and satisfaction were individually associated with the quality of life in the last 18 months of life.
Implications for practice, theory, policy, or future research?
- Recognizing sexual health as an integral component of overall quality of life is essential.
- Discussing sexual health as healthcare professionals is important. Using short PROM's exploring the patient's need to discuss sexual health could facilitate the initiation of such a discussion.
- Future research is essential to examine whether patients perceive decreased sexual health as a concern and whether the meaning of sex changes at the end-of-life.
Full paper available from:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02692163251385774
If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu:
a.nwosu@lancaster.ac.uk
