THE SEXUALITY OF PATIENTS SUBMITTED TO RADICAL MASTECTOMY
Keywords:
Women sexuality, Radical mastectomy, Breast cancerAbstract
The diagnosis and treatment for breast câncer promotes changes in women's life,
and beside this, those related with her sexual life. Evaluate the presence of sexual problems related to the sexuality of women submitted to radical mastectomy. Methods: this
work has a pilot character of a study with a larger number of patients. They were evaluated changes of the sexuality in patients submitted to the radical mastectomy patients
with reconstruction (n = 10) and to the radical mastectomy patients without reconstruction (n = 10), at three months after the surgery, using Watts Sexual Function Questionnaire, an American questionnaire which assesses four components of sexual experience
which includes perceptions of sexual desire, arousal, orgasm and satisfaction, specific
to evaluate sexuality in people with clinic pathologies. To this questionnaire were added
aiming ate the evaluation and observation of the reactions of the patients in front of
the surgical diagnosis and the possible alterations resulted of the radical mastectomy in
self-esteem, in the humor, in the capacity to plan the future and in maintenance of the
affectionate-sexual relationship. The results of this investigation are preliminary, regarding a pilot sample and they showed that the patients submitted to radical mastectomy
without reconstruction positive presents indication of sexual dysfiinction, mainly in what
it concerns to orgasmic function (orgasmic dysfunction), when compared with the group
with reconstruction. Indications of the depression presence were observed in 31,57% of
the sample. Of these patients, two (one in each group) related suicidai intention during
the questionnaire application. There is indication sexuality compromising in patients
submitted to the radical mastectomy without reconstruction when compared to those
underwent to radical mastectomy with reconstruction, in what concerns to the presence
of orgasmic dysfunction.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Maria Fernanda de M. Maluf, Marco de Tubino Scanavino, Alfredo Carlos S. D. Barros
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