Woman experiencing gynecologic surgery: coping with the changes imposed by surgery

Abstract

Objectives: to describe the feelings and perceptions resulting from gynecologic surgery by women and analyze how they experience the changes caused by the surgery. Method: a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study, which had Symbolic Interactionism and Grounded Theory as its theoretical framework. Participants of the study: 13 women submitted to surgery: Total Abdominal Hysterectomy, Total Abdominal Hysterectomy with bilateral Adnexectomy, Wertheim-Meigs surgery, Oophorectomy, Salpingectomy, Mastectomy, Quadrantectomy and Tracheloplasty. Individual interviews were conducted, recorded and analyzed according to the comparative analysis technique of the Grounded Theory. Results: from the data two categories emerged - Perceiving a different body and feeling as a different person and; building the meaning of mutilation. The changes experienced make women build new meanings and change the perception of themselves and their social environment. From the interaction with their inner self, occurred a reflection on relationships, the difference in their body and themselves, the functions it performs and the harm caused by the surgery. Conclusions: the participants felt like different women; the mutilation developed in concrete feelings, due the loss of the organ, and in abstract, linked to the impact of social identity and female functionality. The importance of the nurse establishing a multidimensional care, to identify the needs that go beyond the biological body is perceived.

Sexuality experiences of hysterectomized women

“…19 In addition, this reiterates that the value that the organ removed has for women is historically based on social and cultural constructions, which delimited roles and obligations inherent to each sex. 4 Thus, female nature has as its main basis biological facts that occur in the woman's body, such as the ability to generate, give birth, and breastfeed, as well as period. 4 Accordingly, it is understood that, in order for women to overcome attributes that associate women's sexuality only with being a mother and reproduction, the partners' support was important in this study.…”

“…4 Thus, female nature has as its main basis biological facts that occur in the woman's body, such as the ability to generate, give birth, and breastfeed, as well as period. 4 Accordingly, it is understood that, in order for women to overcome attributes that associate women's sexuality only with being a mother and reproduction, the partners' support was important in this study.…”

“…The uterus, in addition to the biological function, has symbolic values related to femininity. 2,4 There are sensations and characteristics related to body perception that are common to women after surgery, among them, feeling awkward and change in the body image, the feeling of mutilation of their body, emptiness, and feeling different from other women. 4 Hysterectomy can have positive or negative implications in the sexuality experience of these women, which may reflect on their self-image, marital and social relationship, or even revealed through depressive symptoms.…”

“…2,4 There are sensations and characteristics related to body perception that are common to women after surgery, among them, feeling awkward and change in the body image, the feeling of mutilation of their body, emptiness, and feeling different from other women. 4 Hysterectomy can have positive or negative implications in the sexuality experience of these women, which may reflect on their self-image, marital and social relationship, or even revealed through depressive symptoms. 5,6 Sexuality is influenced by the socio-cultural construction, and is interrelated in gestures, words, behaviors, looks, attitudes, and in the silence of each one as well.…”

Body, culture and meaning

“…Considering that the breast is an important symbol of femininity, breast cancer is among the greatest of fears. The anguish of mutilation, the fear of dying, and the fear of losing partners as a consequence of the commitment of sexuality are experienced 23 , and these are impacts that reflect on women's self-esteem, self-image and selfconcept 24 . Nevertheless, for men the penis represents virility and the essence of masculinity.…”