New Tool IDs Sexual Struggles in Female Partners of Prostate Cancer Patients

FRIDAY, May 24, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The Sexual Concerns In Partners of Patients with Prostate cancer tool is a valid measure of sexual health in female partners of patients with prostate cancer, according to a study published online May 17 in European Urology Oncology.

Stacy Loeb, M.D., from NYU Langone Health in New York City, and colleagues described the development and validation of an instrument to measure sexual health in female partners of patients with prostate cancer. The 27-question tool was developed as a result of a literature review, two qualitative studies, and an expert consensus process. The analysis for validation of the tool included questionnaires completed by 200 female partners of patients with prostate cancer.

The researchers reported that exploratory factor analysis eliminated eight items and revealed seven key factors: (1) distress/satisfaction; (2) loss of connection as a couple; (3) active communication; (4) discomfort with communication; (5) frustration with sexual counseling; (6) expansion of sexual repertoire; and (7) nonpenetrative sexual activity. The scale showed strong internal consistency (ordinal alpha, 0.94) and test-retest reliability (0.89).

“Our hope is that clinicians will use our survey to help patients and their partners identify issues in their sex lives that are impacted by this common cancer and to help determine what support services could be useful,” Loeb said in a statement. “When thinking about living with prostate cancer, this is really a couples’ disease, and partners’ unmet needs should be part of the conversation.”

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