title: Physical sexual and intimate relationship concerns among Indonesian cervical cancer survivors: A phenomenological study.
abstract: Cervical cancer often leads to sexuality and intimacy concerns for the affected woman within a marital relationship.This study aimed to explore physical sexual concerns and their impact on the intimate partner relationships experienced by cervical cancer survivors. Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, data were collected through in-depth interviews with Indonesian women survivors of cervical cancer. Two themes and five sub-themes were constructed from the thematic analysis. The first theme was the physical sexual concerns following cervical cancer treatment, with the subthemes: red spotting and massive vaginal discharge after having sexual intercourse; narrower, smaller and less lubricated vagina; pain during sexual intercourse; feeling of shortened vagina as if it had been cut. The second theme of impact of sexual concerns on intimate partner had five subthemes of: looking for reasons to refuse sexual intercourse; prejudice towards the spouse; feeling forced to fulfil husband's sexual needs; accepting spouse's anger; willingness to let the spouse marry another woman. The findings provide nurses with a greater understanding on how women adapt to their altered sexuality and intimacy with their partner following cancer treatments.
authors.affiliation: Maternity and Woman's Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, University of Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia. yatikris@ui.ac.id
authors.forename: Yati
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Afiyanti
authors.affiliation: Maternity and Woman's Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, University of Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia.
authors.forename: Ariesta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Milanti
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D017741:Survivors; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy