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ORLANDO—A new study suggests many US cancer centers do not have therapeutic aids for patients who experience sexual dysfunction after cancer treatment.
Of 25 cancer centers polled, 80% said they had no sexual aids available on site for men, and 64% said they had no such aids for women.
Sharon Bober, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and her colleagues presented this research at the 2018 Cancer Survivorship Symposium (abstract 134*).
“[P]roviding sexual aids is one step toward treating sexual health like any other aspect of survivorship care,” Dr Bober said.
“It should be no different than providing wigs and head coverings to women who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy. It’s important to give patients the message that regaining sexual health is a perfectly valid and life-affirming aspect of regaining overall quality of life.”
Dr Bober and her colleagues conducted this study to determine the availability of sexual aids at 25 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.
The researchers called these centers posing as a spouse, adult child, or sibling of a patient. The team made separate calls to ask about sexual aids for women and those for men.
Women’s sexual aids
Twenty-four percent of cancer centers (n=6) said they had sexual aids for women, 64% (n=16) did not, and 12% of centers were unreachable (n=3).
The most common aids were personal lubrication, vaginal moisturizer, and vaginal dilators—all of which were available at 5 centers.
Three centers had vibrators, 2 had books/pamphlets, 2 had pelvic floor exercisers, and 2 had product lists.
Men’s sexual aids
Twelve percent of cancer centers (n=3) said they had sexual aids for men, 80% (n=20) did not, and 8% (n=2) were unreachable.
Two centers said they had personal lubrication available for men, 2 had penile support rings, 1 had vacuum erection devices, and 1 had books/pamphlets.
Next steps
Now, Dr Bober and her colleagues hope to query the other 44 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers to see what products they are selling and perhaps conduct patient surveys to find out what types of resources are most useful for cancer survivors.
“What we really need to do is go to the centers that are successfully providing sexual health products and find out how they promote and provide resources to their patients,” Dr Bober said.
“We can’t keep the conversation at the 10,000-foot level. We need to talk concretely about how to partner with providers to make sexual health resources, including sexual health aids, available so cancer survivors can get the help that they need.”
*Information presented differs from the abstract.
ORLANDO—A new study suggests many US cancer centers do not have therapeutic aids for patients who experience sexual dysfunction after cancer treatment.
Of 25 cancer centers polled, 80% said they had no sexual aids available on site for men, and 64% said they had no such aids for women.
Sharon Bober, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and her colleagues presented this research at the 2018 Cancer Survivorship Symposium (abstract 134*).
“[P]roviding sexual aids is one step toward treating sexual health like any other aspect of survivorship care,” Dr Bober said.
“It should be no different than providing wigs and head coverings to women who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy. It’s important to give patients the message that regaining sexual health is a perfectly valid and life-affirming aspect of regaining overall quality of life.”
Dr Bober and her colleagues conducted this study to determine the availability of sexual aids at 25 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.
The researchers called these centers posing as a spouse, adult child, or sibling of a patient. The team made separate calls to ask about sexual aids for women and those for men.
Women’s sexual aids
Twenty-four percent of cancer centers (n=6) said they had sexual aids for women, 64% (n=16) did not, and 12% of centers were unreachable (n=3).
The most common aids were personal lubrication, vaginal moisturizer, and vaginal dilators—all of which were available at 5 centers.
Three centers had vibrators, 2 had books/pamphlets, 2 had pelvic floor exercisers, and 2 had product lists.
Men’s sexual aids
Twelve percent of cancer centers (n=3) said they had sexual aids for men, 80% (n=20) did not, and 8% (n=2) were unreachable.
Two centers said they had personal lubrication available for men, 2 had penile support rings, 1 had vacuum erection devices, and 1 had books/pamphlets.
Next steps
Now, Dr Bober and her colleagues hope to query the other 44 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers to see what products they are selling and perhaps conduct patient surveys to find out what types of resources are most useful for cancer survivors.
“What we really need to do is go to the centers that are successfully providing sexual health products and find out how they promote and provide resources to their patients,” Dr Bober said.
“We can’t keep the conversation at the 10,000-foot level. We need to talk concretely about how to partner with providers to make sexual health resources, including sexual health aids, available so cancer survivors can get the help that they need.”
*Information presented differs from the abstract.
ORLANDO—A new study suggests many US cancer centers do not have therapeutic aids for patients who experience sexual dysfunction after cancer treatment.
Of 25 cancer centers polled, 80% said they had no sexual aids available on site for men, and 64% said they had no such aids for women.
Sharon Bober, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and her colleagues presented this research at the 2018 Cancer Survivorship Symposium (abstract 134*).
“[P]roviding sexual aids is one step toward treating sexual health like any other aspect of survivorship care,” Dr Bober said.
“It should be no different than providing wigs and head coverings to women who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy. It’s important to give patients the message that regaining sexual health is a perfectly valid and life-affirming aspect of regaining overall quality of life.”
Dr Bober and her colleagues conducted this study to determine the availability of sexual aids at 25 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.
The researchers called these centers posing as a spouse, adult child, or sibling of a patient. The team made separate calls to ask about sexual aids for women and those for men.
Women’s sexual aids
Twenty-four percent of cancer centers (n=6) said they had sexual aids for women, 64% (n=16) did not, and 12% of centers were unreachable (n=3).
The most common aids were personal lubrication, vaginal moisturizer, and vaginal dilators—all of which were available at 5 centers.
Three centers had vibrators, 2 had books/pamphlets, 2 had pelvic floor exercisers, and 2 had product lists.
Men’s sexual aids
Twelve percent of cancer centers (n=3) said they had sexual aids for men, 80% (n=20) did not, and 8% (n=2) were unreachable.
Two centers said they had personal lubrication available for men, 2 had penile support rings, 1 had vacuum erection devices, and 1 had books/pamphlets.
Next steps
Now, Dr Bober and her colleagues hope to query the other 44 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers to see what products they are selling and perhaps conduct patient surveys to find out what types of resources are most useful for cancer survivors.
“What we really need to do is go to the centers that are successfully providing sexual health products and find out how they promote and provide resources to their patients,” Dr Bober said.
“We can’t keep the conversation at the 10,000-foot level. We need to talk concretely about how to partner with providers to make sexual health resources, including sexual health aids, available so cancer survivors can get the help that they need.”
*Information presented differs from the abstract.