Many young breast cancer patients face unexpected side effects to their sexual health — and wished doctors addressed it.
A year after Sara Montiel felt a lump in her breast, the then 36-year-old was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy, radiation, chemotherapy and then an oophorectomy, the removal of her ovaries, a year later. Like many patients with cancer, Montiel’s first priority was making sure treatment worked.
“They tell you, ‘OK this medicine will put you in menopause. You are in your 30s. The side-effects of this is bone density, but no long term effects,” she says. “But what if one day you wake up and you realize that it has been weeks without you wanting to have sex with your husband? Those types of changes that you realize just after — I think that having this conversation with the physician and with the husband at early stages can help in making a plan.
The survey, conducted in 2020, included responses from 717 people diagnosed with breast cancer before 45. It found that 66% of participants were “not satisfied with their sexual health.”The participants said that vaginal dryness, lack of interest in sex, pain with sex and having trouble orgasming were some of the issues they faced.