title: Communication About Sexuality in Advanced Illness Aligns With a Palliative Care Approach to Patient-Centered Care.
abstract: Treatment-related sexual complications are common in cancer patients although rarely discussed in the palliative care setting. Sexuality is an important survivorship issue and remains relevant even in the terminal setting. There are multiple barriers in dialoguing about intimacy and sexual functioning from the patient and provider perspectives. Palliative care providers, while not expected to be sexual health experts, can provide comprehensive patient-centered care by including sexual health as part of their evaluation. They can explore how sexual dysfunction can impair functioning and utilize an interdisciplinary approach to manage symptoms. Palliative care providers can help patients identify their goals of care and explore what anticipated sexual changes and treat-related side effects are tolerable and intolerable to the patient's quality of life. Principles on addressing sexuality in the palliative setting and practical ways of incorporating sexual history into the palliative care assessment are provided.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente, 1600 Eureka Road, Roseville, CA, 95661, USA. margaret.w.leung@kp.org.
authors.forename: Margaret W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Breast and Imaging Center, 300 East 66th St., New York City, NY, 10065, USA. goldfars@mskcc.org.
authors.forename: Shari
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goldfarb
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA. ddizon@partners.org.
authors.forename: Don S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Dizon
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000523:psychology*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011788:Quality of Life; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D012735:Sexual Dysfunction, Physiological / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D019529:Sexuality
keywords: Communication; Palliative care; Sexuality