Abstract
Treatment of gynecological carcinomas has progressed enormously, achieving considerable cure and survival rates. Nevertheless, the prejudice of being incurable continues to be held against this disease, and it also continues to be closely associated with the attributes of sinister, treacherous, and incalculable. In an unrestrained consumer society in which youth and beauty, health, and vitality are glorified above all else, the notions of physical invalidism and incurable disease are pushed into the background, and the problem of death is taboo. These social conditions promote fear of cancer as well as it is fatalistically regarded as a disease with a fatal outcome. Neither extensive preventive medical programs nor health education campaigns have changed this very much. Far-reaching therapeutic measures such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy change and deform the body and lead to serious damage of self-esteem. Female cancer patients feel devalued, socially and emotionally no longer capable of communication, socially isolated, and sexually unattractive. In fact, even though they are pitied to a certain extent, they are often shunned at work, by friends, yes even by their own family and beloved partner. Thus, to have cancer not only means fear of being in the hands of a treacherous disease, but especially fear of social isolation and of losing recognition and affection. Beyond the individual psychological disorder of the female patient, the diagnosis of cancer leads to damage in the family and environmental situation.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Eicher W, Herms V (1979) Zur Epidemiologie des Mamma-Carcinoms. Fortschr Med 97 (38): 1638
Erkrath FA, Randow H (1967) Vita Sexualis nach Karzinombehandlung im Vergleich zu nicht krebskranken berufstätigen Frauen. Zbl Gynäk 89: 1210–1216
Froewis J, Picha E (1955) Der Einfluß der Radikaloperationen bei Carcinoma colli uteri auf das Sexualleben der Frau mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Wertheimschen Operation. Geburts Frauenheilk 15: 806–810
Herschbach P, Rosbund AM, Brengelmann JC (1985) Probleme von Krebspatientinnen und Formen ihrer Bewältigung. Onkologie 8: 219–231
Henning G, Schulz St (1975) Sexualverhalten von Patientinnen nach der Therapie von Zervixkarzinomen. Zbl Gynäk 97: 1562–1570
Maguire GP (1978) Psychiatry problems in the first year after mastectomy. Br Med J 1: 963
Pfleiderer A, Richter D, Thiessen P, Kissel U, Tibi P, Nowara P (1979) Aktuelle Probleme bei der Nachsorge von Patientinnen mit Carcinomen der Cervix und des Corpus uteri. Onkologie 2: 62–69
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1988 Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Richter, D. (1988). Gynecological Cancer and Sexual Disturbances. In: Eicher, W., Kokott, G., Vogt, HJ., Herms, V., Wille, R. (eds) Sexology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73794-7_46
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73794-7_46
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-73796-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-73794-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive