title: In the middle and on the sideline: the experience of spouses of men with prostate cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Spouses play an important role in how well patients with prostate cancer manage their illness. Whereas earlier studies mostly included both patients and spouses, this study focuses on the spouses' experiences during the course of the illness.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to explore how the daily life of female spouses is affected by their husband's prostate cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative interviews were conducted with 9 spouses of men receiving potential curative treatment for prostate cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prostate cancer in men had significant impact on spouses' everyday life. The results showed that spouses strived to achieve a balance between focusing on their own needs and meeting their husbands' needs along the course of the illness. Four themes emerged: strong and optimistic versus vulnerable and overstrained, maintaining the partner's sense of manhood, being on the sideline, and the need for relationships outside the immediate family.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Being a spouse to a man with prostate cancer is emotionally and practically demanding. There is a danger of the spouses suppressing their own needs in the process of supporting their husbands. Those spouses living in the situation over a period of years expressed fatigue and a shift in focus from their husbands' needs to their own needs for support.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Healthcare providers should provide support for spouses during the course of the illness, encourage spouses to participate in seminars for couples living with prostate cancer, and be aware of the potential for situational fatigue in spouses many years after the diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, Norway. bente.ervik@uit.no
authors.forename: Bente
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ervik
authors.forename: Tone
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nordøy
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asplund
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D011340:Problem Solving; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011788:Quality of Life; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires