Sex When You’re Sick: Reclaiming Sexual Health After Illness or Injury

Sexuality is much more than sex; it is the embodiment of how we perceive our sexual selves and encompasses past experiences, attitudes, values, as well as the meanings that we have constructed throughout our lives about our sexual behavior. It is integral to healthy human functioning, and it can be severely affected whenever a person becomes the victim of illness or injury. This book describes how illness and injury impact sexual functioning. From cancer to diabetes, hysterectomy to injury, from mental illness to combat injury, the author covers a wide variety of illness and disease that can directly impact sexuality. Based on cutting edge research, current practice in this area by leading sex therapists and experts, the author provides readers with a guide to how illness and disease can affect sexual functioning and how victims can handle the various issues involved. Case studies, quotes from patients, and tips and solutions for problems encountered in all aspects of sexual functioning are included throughout.

Until now, a comprehensive overview of the challenges to sexuality from illness and injury was not available. This book explains the reasons why illness and injury affect sexuality. This information alone will help many people who are experiencing problems in their sex lives as a result of the illness itself or the treatments for it. It also presents suggestions for how people can help themselves to solve their problems. Helpful resources are included at the end of each chapter for further information and help. Each chapter contains stories of people who have experienced sexual problems as a result of illness or injury and many readers will see themselves in these examples. Just knowing that other people have the same sorts of problems may be a comfort. In addition, the information and explanations in the book can be helpful in starting a conversation with health care providers about problems in sexual functioning. Readers will come away with a better understanding of how they can cultivate sexuality during and after battling illness and injury.

ANNE KATZ is the sexuality counselor at CancerCare Manitoba and an adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba. She is an active member of The American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric & Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN). Dr Katz is the editor of Nursing for Women’s Health and writes a column called Sexually Speaking in the American Journal of Nursing. She is the author of the award-winning textbook Breaking the Silence on Cancer and Sexuality as well as Woman Cancer Sex. Katz has given lectures across North America on the topic of sexuality and illness.