Supportive care helps people meet the physical, practical, emotional and spiritual challenges of cancer. It is an important part of cancer care. There are many programs and services available to help meet the needs and improve the quality of life of people living with cancer and their loved ones, especially after treatment has ended.
Recovering from cervical cancer and adjusting to life after treatment is different for each woman, depending on the extent of the disease, the type of treatment and many other factors. The end of cancer treatment may bring mixed emotions. Even though treatment has ended, there may be other issues to deal with, such as coping with long-term side effects. A woman who has been treated for cervical cancer may have the following concerns.
Body image and self-esteem
Cervical cancer and its treatment can affect a woman's body image and self-esteem. Body image is a person's perception of their own body. How a person feels about or sees themselves is called self-esteem.
Women who have an ostomy following a pelvic exenteration may feel uncomfortable around others. These feelings may cause distress for some people.
Women may feel differently about their bodies and themselves as women, especially after having a hysterectomy or pelvic exenteration. They may feel less like a woman or less feminine because they no longer have a uterus or have had vaginal reconstruction.
Changes in sexual function following surgery or radiation therapy may alter body image and self-esteem in many people.
Sexuality
Many women continue to have strong, supportive relationships and a satisfying sex life after cervical cancer. If sexual problems occur because of cervical cancer treatment, there are ways to manage them.
Some of the side effects of cervical cancer treatment that can make sex painful or difficult include:
Some women may lose interest in having sex. It is common to have a decreased interest in sex around the time of diagnosis and treatment.
When a woman first starts having sex after treatment for cervical cancer, she may be afraid that it will be painful or that she will not have an orgasm. The first attempts at being intimate with a partner may be disappointing. It may take time for the couple to feel comfortable with each other again. Some women and their partners may need counselling to help them cope with these feelings and the effects of cancer treatments on their ability to have sex.
Fertility problems
Infertility is the inability to conceive a child. Women who have a hysterectomy will not be able to have children. Fertility problems can also occur after treatment with radiation therapy or chemotherapy for cervical cancer.
Fertility counselling should be done before treatment is started.
Lymphedema
Lymphedema is the swelling that occurs when lymph fluid builds up in the soft tissues. The lymph nodes work like small filters in the body. They filter extra body fluids, abnormal cells and cells that cause infections.
Lymphedema may occur in a woman’s legs if she had lymph nodes removed from her pelvis during cervical cancer surgery. Lymphedema is more likely to occur if radiation therapy to the pelvis was also given.
See a list of questions to ask your doctor about supportive care after treatment.