The Impact of Gender Role on Recovery from Bone Marrow Transplantation

Abstract

Few works have looked at the social impact of surviving bone marrow transplantation, a highly invasive treatment that challenges social roles and relationships with social institutions. No work to date has looked at how gender role might affect recovery between men and women. Identifying how these factors influence recovery is essential if the medical community is to address all of the needs of the patient in the postrecovery setting. This article discusses findings of a longitudinal assessment of fifty-two long-term survivors of bone marrow transplantation. As was expected, satisfaction with life following transplant was more strongly associated with gender roles, with women more likely to be influenced by family support and emotional recovery and men more likely to be influenced by physical recovery and, to a lesser extent, emotional recovery.