Oncosexology and the role of the nurse: integration, specialisation or isolation?

Abstract

As cancer increasingly becomes a chronic illness it is likely that those living with its impact will come to expect a shift in management emphasis from that of disease surveillance and symptom management to one that embraces rehabilitation and survivorship. Within the UK, those whose sexual lives are adversely affected by cancer and its treatment are often inconsistently assessed and thus incompletely managed. Cancer and its treatment can create sexual morbidity across all phases of the human sexual response cycle. Although currently in scarce supply, individuals and couples may benefit most from both an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to overcome what are often multi-faceted sexual difficulties. This paper explores the role of nurses in cancer care in providing support for sexual rehabilitation at different competence levels and considers how this can interface with specialist professional colleagues currently working both within and external to contemporary cancer service provision. It is argued that cancer services in the UK, Europe and across much of the developed world have a long way to go before routine sexual assessment and full integration of sexual rehabilitation become a reality of supportive care in oncology.