Sex After Breast Cancer Can Be Complicated in a Unique way

Women who have suffered from Breast cancer are more likely to need help re-establishing a healthy sex life. Actually it is not necessarily the specific treatment or surgery on the breast cancer that causes women to end up with specific sexual complaints. It is most often a whole constellation of  conditions that can cause problems with sex and intimacy. After breast cancer treatment the patient who had breast cancer may suffer from problems of body image, fatigue, disruptions of thought processing, and just the sheer work of getting one's life back can be the cause of problems with sex after therapy. The problems with sexuality often will persist through the years of post breast cancer treatments with the medications tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitor use, and in the years beyond that.
Virtually all breast cancer survivors report concerns with sex. The most common issue is due to the to the medical condition of vulvovaginal atrophy and painful dryness of the vaginal tissues. Some breast cancer patients have a unique vaginal condition however that is not just due to low estrogen, menopause or thinning vaginal tissues, but some breast cancer patients also have a problem unique to their condition due to the prior chemotherapy. Their specific condition that has been named vaginal mucosal erythrodysesthesia: Skin toxicity due to Chemotherapy. Both the lack of estrogen and the effects of chemo can affect the vagina and it's surrounding tissues: the vulva, the urethra, the mons, the bladder, the anus, the rectum, the mouth, your lips, the perineum…and even the nipples…in short, pretty much most of what you want to touch or have touched during sex. This condition can be treatable but it's not recognized if you and your docs are not discussing any of this. And when we look at the medications we use for breast caner treatment and prevention: tamoxifene raloxifene, aromatase inhibitors, you pretty much don’t find factual data in the studies to help figure out what the effects were of the mucosal erythrodysethesia skin toxicity post breast cancer. and how serious a problem it was. The tissue condition also makes a breast cancer patient more susceptible  infections such as yeast and bacterial vaginosis can make the symptoms worse so do come see your gyno to get checked out if you hurt with sex. Treatments are available, that range from prescription therapy to the MonaLisa Touch CO2 vaginal therapy. The start of treatment should be a discussion and examination.