Barriers to sexual counseling by the health team to cancer patients: A review study

Introduction: The physiological, psychological and interpersonal functions of the cancer patient undergo serious changes, all of which can have a negative impact on the patient's sexual health.Impaired sexual health of cancer patients can lead to lower quality of life and higher anxiety in patients. Therefore, in this study, scientific evidences and other relevant documents were reviewed to capture the Barriers to sexual counseling by the health team to cancer patients. Methods: In this narrative review, the keywords of "cancer patients","sexual care", "sexual counseling", "barriers"searched separately in databases included PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, Ovid, SID, and Magiran from ۲۰۱۰ to ۲۰۲۱. Criteria for inclusion consisted of peer-reviewed articles (review, cross-sectional, longitudinal, interventional, or pilot studies) addressing Barriers to sexual counseling by the health team to cancer patients. Of ۴۸ articles found, after removing duplicates, the title and abstract of retrieved articles were reviewed and ۱۵ articles were remained for final review. Results: Barriers to the treatment team include lack of knowledge and skills in sexual health, lack of competence for sexual counseling, embarrassment to open this discussion, lack of need for sexual health discussion with cancer patient, insufficient time, lack of private and appropriate environment, unwillingness treatment team to start discussing sexual health with the patient, cultural differences and sexual incompatibility Treatment team with the patient to provide sexual counseling, Lack of workshops to empower the treatment team to provide sexual counseling, Lack of sex therapist in cancer centers. Conclusion: Therefore, by identifying these barriers and reflecting them to policy makers, barriers to providing sexual counseling can be removed and efforts can be made to promote the sexual health and quality of life of these patients.

Keywords:

Barrier , sexual counseling , health team , cancer patients , review study