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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psycho-Oncology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1516544
Experience of sexual relationship of patients after radical prostatectomy: a qualitative study
Provisionally accepted
Haiyu Zhang 1
Zhen Liu 1,2 Yongmei Ye 1 Xiaolian Long 1 Tuan Yu 1 Yuxi Zhang 1 Ziling Dai 1 Ling Chen 1* Juan Du 1*- 1 Second Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
- 2 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao, Macau Region, China
Background: There are different degrees of erectile dysfunction in men after radical prostatectomy, and it takes a long time for their sexual satisfaction to improve. Before the recovery of sexual function, the patient's sexual relationship experience may change, which may affect the patient's family stability. Therefore, the present study aimed to comprehensively understand the sexual relationship experience of patients after radical prostatectomy.Methods:The present study was a qualitative study using the phenomenological method. Purposive sampling was used to select 16 patients with prostate cancer who were followed up after radical prostatectomy in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Colaizzi's seven-step process for the phenomenological approach was applied to data analysis.Results:Four themes and 11 subcategories were identified. Four major themes were “differences in the expression of sexual needs”, “changes in sexual behavior”, “changes in intimacy between spouses”, and “changes in role cognition”, respectively.Conclusion:After radical prostatectomy, many changes occur in the relationship between the sexes. Medical staff should actively guide the relationship between the sexes to help patients and their spouses face up to the changes after surgery, to help improve the relationship between the sexes and improve their quality of life.
Keywords: Sexual relationship, Radical Prostatectomy, qualitative study, prostate cancer, experience
Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 07 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Liu, Ye, Long, Yu, Zhang, Dai, Chen and Du. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ling Chen, Second Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
Juan Du, Second Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
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