Breast cancer and sexuality: the impacts of breast cancer treatment on the sex lives of women in Brazil

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of the impact on women’s sexual lives after diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer in Ribeirao Preto, São Paulo. The study involved 36 women, 15 of whom were interviewed and the remainder of whom participated in focus and body-image group discussions. Data collection was undertaken between 2008 and 2010. Findings focus on women’s experience of breast cancer as a life-threatening condition and document reappraisals of their lives in general, seeking to situate these women’s sexual lives within the context of wider ideals about femininity and sexual cultures in Brazil. Women expressed anxiety concerning the effects of treatment for breast cancer, particularly concerns about body image. We draw together implications of the prior findings for the sexual scripts played out in women’s sexual relationships and lives. Three main sexual scripts – ‘traditional gender roles’, ‘ageing’ and ‘egalitarian pleasure-oriented’ – are identified and discussed in relation to both the life-changing impact of diagnosis of cancer and wider changes in gender dimensions of Brazilian sexual culture.