Here are five notes from the report:
- There are about 18 million cancer survivors today, making up 5.4% of the population. Cancer survivorship is expected to grow to 26 million by 2040.
- Cancer survivors often live with sexual side effects from treatment, including joint pain, erectile dysfunction and early menopause. Despite this reality, physicians are not regularly advising patients on how to navigate these symptoms after treatment ends.
- Janeane Anderson, PhD, an assistant professor at the Knoxville-based University of Tennessee, estimates about 80% of patients struggle with sex after treatment.
“Sexual health is one of the greatest unmet needs. Dating and relationships and sex and sexuality have been ignored,” Dr. Anderson, who teaches at the university’s Health Sciences Center in Memphis, Tenn., told NPR.
- Cancer survivors reported feeling “frivolous and ignored” when physicians dodge questions about sex after cancer. They also can have “internalized grief” about how cancer has changed their bodies.
- Lorraine Drapek, DNP, from Massachusetts General Cancer Center’s Sexual Health Clinic, told NPR that men are especially reluctant to talk about sexual side effects from treatment, but that sex and relationships are an important aspect of returning to normalcy after surviving cancer.
Read the full report here.
