Healing Shadow: Sexual Dysfunction after the Dismemberment of a Breast

Abstract

Breast Cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women in the United States. Fortunately it has one of the best survival rates among all other types of cancer; nevertheless patients with breast cancer usually suffer long-term physical, emotional, and psychological problems. The treatment protocols for this diagnosis, usually including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, often traumatize the patients and affect their quality of life and intimacy with their partners. Ten women were interviewed for this phenomenological study and a depth psychological approach was used to assess the themes. The common themes that emerged included Death and Dying, Sexuality and Sexual Intimacy, Loss of Identity, Rebirth and Transformation. The word “Cancer” is often received as a death sentence. These women descended into a dark realm when they were diagnosed with breast cancer. When going through the treatments they often had to detach and become distant observers. They then went through a Rebirth process where they had to figure out who they were after the treatments had changed them physically, physiologically, and psychologically. They lost their hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows, they lost their sexuality and sexual desires, and they lost an important sign of their femininity—their breasts. They had to die to their old selves in order to allow this experience to be transformative. In order for them to regain their sexuality and sexual desires, they had to journey within.