Psychosexual functioning among adult female survivors of childhood cancer: A report from the childhood cancer survivor study

Abstract

Purpose: Childhood cancer survivors may be at risk for impaired psychosexual functioning as a direct result of their cancer or its treatments, psychosocial difficulties, and/or diminished quality of life. Patients and Methods: Two thousand one hundred seventy-eight female adult survivors of childhood cancer and 408female siblings from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) completed a self-report questionnaire about their psychosexual functioning and quality of life. On average, participants were age 29 years (range, 18 to 51 years) at the time of the survey, had been diagnosed with cancer at a median age of 8.5 years (range, 0 to 20) and were most commonly diagnosed with leukemia (33.2%) and Hodgkin lymphoma (15.4%). Results: Multivariable analyses suggested that after controlling for sociodemographic differences, survivors reported significantly lower sexual functioning (mean difference [MnD], -0.2; P =.01), lower sexual interest (MnD, -0.2; P