Sexual Dysfunction and its Associated Factors in Breast Cancer Patients After Mastectomy

Background: Sexual function refers to a major aspect of health affecting the quality of life in breast cancer patients. Sexual dysfunction (SD) creates high psychological pressures. Objective: The current research aimed to investigate the frequency of SD and its associated factors in post-mastectomy women. Materials and Methods: The research was a cross-sectional study. Sampling was according to the convenience method. The study was conducted on the women referring to the oncology ward of Tooba post-specialized clinic at Imam Khomeini hospital affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. In order to collect data, the demographic characteristics questionnaire and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire were filled out by the patients. Descriptive statistics, Pearson and Spearman correlation methods in SPSS 16 were employed to analyze the data. Results: The mean age of 104 participants in this study was 47.339.03 years and 91 patients (87.5%) diagnosed with SD. The highest frequency was related to desire and arousal disorders (69.2 and 64.4%, respectively) and the lowest to sexual satisfaction disorder (26.9%). The correlation test results indicate that there was a positive significant relationship between income and sexual function at the confidence level of 95% (r = 0.20, P = 0.05). Conclusions: High outbreak of SD in these patients suggest that the therapists involved in oncology should ask the patients about their sexual problems and do thorough evaluations; in addition to guide the patients, they should provide them with required training in order to enable them to manage these problems .