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Research Articles

Men’s Achilles’ heel: prostate cancer and the reconstruction of masculinity

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon &
Pages 1675-1689 | Received 26 Sep 2022, Accepted 30 Jan 2023, Published online: 16 Feb 2023
 

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how Swedish men diagnosed with prostate cancer understand the effects of their treatment in relation to sexual health and masculinity. Utilising a phenomenological and sociologically informed approach, the study involved interviews with 21 Swedish men who experienced problems following treatment. The results showed that participants’ initial response post-treatment, involved the development of new bodily understandings and socially informed strategies to handle incontinence and sexual dysfunction. Due to impotence and the loss of ejaculatory ability following treatments such as surgery, participants re-articulated the meaning of intimacy, as well as their understanding of masculinity and themselves as ageing men. Unlike in previous research, such a re-articulation of masculinity and sexual health is understood as taking place within rather than in opposition to hegemonic masculinity.

Notes

1 See Taitt (Citation2018) for a review of incidence, detection and mortality as influenced by race, ethnicity and geographic location.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by The Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research & Charity, no: 20210010.