The Sounds of Silence: Sexuality Information for Cancer Patients

Mary, a 41-year-old woman with endometrial cancer, had a hysterectomy for endometrial cancer and subsequently completed radiation therapy. Having recovered from the operation and radiation, she is doing well physically. Nonetheless, she reports that she had pain on intercourse 3 weeks before and has been too afraid to try again since then. She has been married for 10 years, and sex has always been very important to her and her husband. She becomes very emotional when talking about this and states that she is afraid that if this does not improve, her husband may leave her. She states that she has not been given information about sexual functioning at any point in her treatment and believes that this is bordering on malpractice.