Intimate Relationships Affected by Breast Cancer: Interventions for Couples

Abstract

A cancer diagnosis imposes significant emotional distress on a substantial proportion of patients and their partners, posing many challenges for both members of a couple. Facing a breast cancer diagnosis, couples may experience psychosocial distress, which might also affect their individual and dyadic functioning. Coping with cancer from a couple-based perspective as a dyadic stressor can profoundly influence psychosocial adjustment as well as individual and dyadic functioning of patients and spouses. Dyadic coping allows a better matching of needs, sharing of worries, and mutual support, resulting in higher relationship satisfaction. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the issues faced by women diagnosed with breast cancer and their spouses, with particular emphasis on interventions for couples coping with cancer. The effectiveness of couple-based interventions is summarized with a critical discussion. For further research, a better understanding of the challenges couples coping with cancer may face and more insights on how to improve interventions for couples might facilitate improvements in the quality of cancer care.

Factors associated with romantic relationship formation difficulties in women with breast cancer

“…Advances in breast cancer detection and treatment have meant that many more women are entering survivorship, with the 5‐year survival rate now almost 90% for Western countries . Consequently, much research has focused on improving quality of life (QOL) in breast cancer survivors in the long term, including gaining a greater understanding of the woman's broader interpersonal context and intimate relationships .…”

“…Advances in breast cancer detection and treatment have meant that many more women are entering survivorship, with the 5-year survival rate now almost 90% for Western countries. 1,2 Consequently, much research has focused on improving quality of life (QOL) in breast cancer survivors in the long term, 3 including gaining a greater understanding of the woman's broader interpersonal context and intimate relationships. 1,[4][5][6] Many un-partnered women report a strong desire to begin romantically "dating" (ie, meeting with someone with whom they have a romantic interest) following breast cancer treatment, in the hope of forming a new relationship.…”

“…1,2 Consequently, much research has focused on improving quality of life (QOL) in breast cancer survivors in the long term, 3 including gaining a greater understanding of the woman's broader interpersonal context and intimate relationships. 1,[4][5][6] Many un-partnered women report a strong desire to begin romantically "dating" (ie, meeting with someone with whom they have a romantic interest) following breast cancer treatment, in the hope of forming a new relationship. 7,8 However, these women also report high levels of dating anxiety, that is, worry about dating situations and fear of negative evaluation by romantic partners.…”

Fertility, sexuality and cancer in young adult women

“…Recently, the comparable outcomes with the use of vitrified or fresh oocytes has revolutionized the opportunity for women to cryopreserve gametes instead of embryos [17 && ,21]. Therefore, also taking into account the complexity of patients' intimate relationship in the context of a new cancer diagnosis [22], it could be considered wiser to cryopreserve oocytes (with or without embryos) in this setting.…”

Alleviating the Breast Cancer Experience: A Plea for Psycho-Oncology

“…Tanja Zimmermann looks into the consequences of breast cancer for both partners in an intimate relationship and delineates interventions for couples [7]. Valerie A. Jenkins and Lesley J. Fallowfield have investigated the reasons why women with breast cancer consent or decline to participate in randomized clinical trials -with surprising results [8].…”