ABSTRACT
This review focuses on the sexual and relationship consequences of treatment for prostate cancer along the disease trajectory from diagnosis to treatment for advanced and metastatic cancer. In addition to describing what we know about the sexual effects of treatment on the heterosexual couple, issues specific to gay men will be included. Finally, the review will end with a discussion of strategies that may be used to assist these men and their partners negotiate a new way of being sexual in the aftermath of treatment.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Anne Katz
Dr. Anne Katz is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at CancerCare Manitoba. She is the editor of the Oncology Nursing Forum, the premier research journal of the Oncology Nursing Society; the Forum is also the #1 nursing journal in the Thomson Reuters ranking of impact factors. She maintains a nil appointment in the College of Nursing at the University of Manitoba and was recently inducted into the American Academy of Nursing.
She has been an invited speaker at multiple international conferences and meetings in North American, Europe and Australia where she has educated health care providers and cancer survivors about cancer, sexuality and survivorship. Her clinical interests include patient education and counseling about treatment decisions, sexuality and fertility preservation.
She is the author of 63 peer-reviewed articles and nine books for health care providers and health care consumers on the topics of illness and sexuality as well as cancer survivorship. Two of her recent books have won prestigious awards: the American Journal of Nursing Consumer Book of the Year Award for “This Should not Be Happening: Young Adults with Cancer” and the SSTAR 2015 Consumer Book Award for “Prostate Cancer and the Man You Love: Supporting and Caring for Your Partner.”