Bringing gender sensitivity into sexual health care for women with gynecological cancer

Quality of sexual life is a vital component of wellbeing for cancer survivors and their partners that may affect the disease prognosis. However, the experience of cancer and its treatments significantly challenge sexual expression and partner relationships and often require health professionals to help partners adapt the many physical, psychological, social/relational, and cultural factors that impact psychosexual functioning. However, an appropriate approach to providing sexual health education for gynecological cancer women and their partners has yet to be established. Additionally, nurses and health professionals have limited relevant professional knowledge and lack the communication skills to respond effectively to the sexual concerns of patients. Further, these professionals frequently hold the incorrect perspective that sexual matters are not relevant to the treatment process. Furthermore, the dominant biomedical culture of the clinic holds that health professionals determine the construction of female sexuality after cancer treatment. This precept turns the nature and scope of the discussion toward dysfunction and/or morbidity, while inherently constraining the integration of psychological and relational elements of sexual recovery for women and their partners. The dominant model constructs gender-blind circumstances and inappropriate standards for the clinical assessment and treatment of women's sexual health. Therefore, this article examines the current clinical practice for the sexual health care of gynecological cancer patients under the dominant biomedical model through the lens of gender-sensitivity and proposes gender-sensitive sexual guidelines as a reference for health professionals.