What is the post-operative care for breast cancer patients?

  Sexuality is an unavoidable and very important issue in the recovery process of breast cancer patients. Especially, the young age of breast cancer patients, in order to normalize the life of patients and obtain the ideal physical, psychological and social functions, it is necessary to correctly understand and treat the sexual issues.  In clinical work, we often encounter these doubts and questions, such as “will married life lead to recurrence of breast cancer”, “is sex harmful to patients’ body”, “will tumor be transmitted through sex”, etc. “These concerns and worries are superfluous. These concerns and worries are superfluous, especially the saying that the so-called sex life will promote cancer recurrence and metastasis is wrong. On the contrary, a moderate, harmonious and regular sex life is not only harmless to the body, but also can enhance the patient’s self-confidence, help maintain the balance of the patient’s endocrine function and improve the immune function of the body, as well as harmonize the relationship between husband and wife, enhance the patient’s confidence in overcoming the disease and facilitate the patient’s recovery. It can even effectively prevent the recurrence of breast cancer. Because tumor disease is not an infectious disease, it will not be transmitted to each other through sexual life. The recovery of sexual ability is also a reflection of the recovery of the whole body.  The most common sexual dysfunction after most breast cancer surgery is low or no sexual desire. It is mainly caused by psychological and somatic aspects, and is distinctly different from normal sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction occurs suddenly, usually after the diagnosis of cancer or after treatment, and is mostly caused by somatic disorders or physical changes.  The main reasons for this change in sexual function are: 1. Functional change of organism and change of self-image due to mastectomy.  After mastectomy, breast cancer patients often have concerns and worries about their physical beauty and even think that they are no longer “complete” women and worry whether their husbands still love them. Patients often feel a sense of loss and inferiority, and their hearts are full of contradictions and sorrow, and they lose confidence in sexual expression and become passive in sexual life, which may develop into sexual indifference and affect the harmony of sexual life.  2. Due to the lack of understanding or misconception of breast cancer by patients and their spouses, such as the stimulation of sexual life will cause cancer recurrence and metastasis and the fear that cancer may be aggravated through sexual life, there is an unbalanced mentality between husband and wife.  3. side effects of treatment (including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc.), which cause psychological and mental stress, fatigue and physical exhaustion.  In Ganz’s survey report on 227 cases of early breast cancer 1-3 years after surgery, 54% of the patients had decreased sexual attraction, 44% were not interested in sex, and 58% had reduced the frequency of sex. In our national survey, 58% of the patients stopped having sex completely, while our questionnaire survey of 198 patients one to one and a half years after surgery showed that 79% of them had never had sex after surgery. In addition, the younger the patient is, the higher the level of knowledge, the more attention is paid to physical changes, and the higher the rate of sexual dysfunction, probably because the patient is young, highly educated and has a higher sense of self-worth, paying attention to physical beauty, and when the image is damaged, it will cause psychological imbalance, resulting in serious psychological reactions of postoperative patients, who are more sensitive to their husbands’ reactions, mostly professional women and white-collar workers, who pay more attention to their own image.  When is the most appropriate time to resume sexual life? How to grasp the right amount of sexual life?   It is difficult to have a unified standard answer, depending on the degree of recovery of the patient’s condition, depending on the individual. During the treatment period and in a weakened state of the patient is not suitable for sex. Generally speaking, it is appropriate to have sex without feeling reluctant and not feeling tired the next day. As for the frequency of sexual life, sometimes it is related to the frequency of sexual life before the disease and the patient’s physical condition, age, type of disease and the degree of recovery. Even if the recovery is better, it should be appropriately lower than the frequency of sexual life before the disease, so as not to overexert physical strength, affecting physical recovery. Premature resumption of sexual life or uncontrolled indulgence is not conducive to the recovery of the disease and will lead to the increase of the weakness of the organism. Therefore, breast cancer patients are fully capable of having the same sexual life as normal people. It is the right attitude not to overindulge and not to force restraint, but to let nature take its course. Moderate sexual life can prevent the recurrence of breast cancer after surgery.  There are several suggestions and methods for patients and husbands: 1. The most important thing is that patients should overcome the inferiority complex. It is important to think that you are respected and loved by your lover not only because of your appearance, but also because of your inner character and other valuable features. If the couple respect and love each other before the disease, sex life is happy and satisfied, after the disease will be restored as before.  2, to give the necessary advice and guidance. By providing patients with certain real information and information about the impact of cancer treatment on sex life, especially to dispel the misconception that the stimulation of sex life will cause cancer recurrence and metastasis and worries about aggravating cancer, and to build up confidence to resume sex life.  3. Encourage patients to wear prosthesis to minimize the psychological barriers to sexual function caused by the change of body shape, so as to eliminate the patient’s inferiority complex and improve the quality of life. Encourage the patient and his spouse to communicate with each other about related issues, to gain mutual understanding, and gradually resume sexual life, choose the appropriate time and place. Men should use contraceptive devices in advance. When resuming sexual life after surgery, if the surgical incision or wound is still tender, minimize the squeezing of the chest to avoid distraction due to pain and discomfort. If you feel that your conjugal life is not going well, you can also change the repressed psychology of breast cancer patients by adjusting the bedroom environment and diverting your attention.