title: Quality of life and sexuality of patients after treatment for gynaecological malignancies: results of a prospective study in 55 patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the sexuality and quality of life (QoL) of women with gynaecological malignancies after multimodal therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a prospective analysis of the sexual status among women after treatment for gynaecological malignancies. Validated questionnaires-female sexual function index (FSFI-d), a semi-structured questionnaire and the quality of life score SF12, were applied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 55 patients (median age=61, range=22-74 years) were enrolled. The cancer diagnoses were 54% ovarian, 26% breast, 13% cervical, 6% vulvar and 2% endometrial cancer. Twenty patients (55.6%) claimed experiencing changes in their sexuality after cancer treatment. The main reasons for this impairment were distorsion of their self image (45%; n=9), dry vaginal mucosa (25%; n=5), fear of physical harm (20%; n=4) and pain during sexual intercourse (20%; n=4). Forty percent of the patients gave no information about their sexuality after cancer therapy. Patients with cervical, endometrial or vulvar cancer had significantly higher changes in their sexuality compared to patients with ovarian cancer even after adjusting for age, recurrence rate and partnership status. The evaluation of SF12 revealed significantly higher psychological functional scores with increasing age. Patients who reported changes of their sexuality were also shown to have a lower overall SF12 score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Evaluation of sexuality and self image perception after cancer treatment is an unmet need and needs to be addressed in women with gynaecological malignancies. Further studies are warranted to assess the influence of the various types of cancer therapies in regard to their effect on sexuality and quality of life.
authors.affiliation: European Competence Centre for Ovarian Cancer, Department of Gynecology, Charité, Campus-Virchow-Clinic/University of Berlin, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Adak
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pilger
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fotopoulou
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beteta
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Klapp
authors.forename: Jalid
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sehouli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019529:Sexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult