Changes to sexual wellbeing and intimacy after cancer were examined through interviews with 41 women; 23 women with cancer and 18 partners of a person with cancer. Thematic analysis identified 2 core themes: 1) Changes to sexuality after cancer: loss of sexual desire, sexual pain, concerns about body image, tiredness, and partner erectile dysfunction; Coital failure equals loss of sex and intimacy; and a counter-narrative in which sexuality is the same after cancer, more commonly reported by non-heterosexual women. 2) Renegotiating Sex: resisting the coital imperative and embracing intimacy. Implications of these findings for therapeutic interventions are discussed.
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Ussher et al. (2014) studied this question.
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