Sexuality is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon that incorporates biologic, psychologic, interpersonal, and behavioral dimensions. It is important to recognize that a wide range of normal sexual functioning exists. Ultimately, sexuality is defined by each patient and his/her partner within a context of factors such as gender, age, personal attitudes, and religious and cultural values.
Many types of cancer and cancer therapies are frequently associated with sexual dysfunction. Across sites, estimates of sexual dysfunction after various cancer treatments have ranged from 40% to 100%. Most of the information relates to women who have breast or gynecologic cancer and men who have prostate cancer. Less is known about how other types of cancers-in particular, other solid tumors-affect sexuality. Research suggests that about 50% of women who have had breast cancer experience long-term sexual dysfunction,[2,3] as do a similar proportion of women who have had gynecologic cancer. For men with prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction (erections inadequate for intercourse) has been the primary form of sexual dysfunction investigated. Prevalence rates of erectile dysfunction have varied. In general, those studies that have used patients' self-reports have found higher rates of erectile dysfunction ranging from 60% to 90% after radical prostatectomy and between 67% and 85% following external-beam radiation therapy.[5,6,7,8] Erectile dysfunction appears to be least prevalent with brachytherapy and most prevalent when cryotherapy is used to treat localized prostate cancer. For Hodgkin lymphoma and testicular cancer, 25% of people who have had these cancers are left with long-term sexual problems.[3,10]
This summary provides information about the treatment of exocrine pancreatic cancer. Other PDQ summaries containing information related to cancer in the pancreas include the following:
Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (Islet Cell Tumors) Treatment.
Unusual Cancers of Childhood Treatment (pancreatic cancer during childhood).
Incidence and Mortality
Estimated new cases and deaths from pancreatic cancer in the United States in 2014:
New cases: 46,420.
Several summary articles on sexuality and cancer give particular emphasis on cancer sites that have a direct impact on sexual functioning.[11,12,13] An individual's sexual response can be affected in a number of ways, and the causes of sexual dysfunction are often both physiological and psychological. The most common sexual problems for people with cancer are the following:
Loss of desire for sexual activity in men and women.
Erectile dysfunction in men.
Dyspareunia (pain with intercourse) in women.
Men may also experience the following:
Anejaculation (absence of ejaculation).
Retrograde ejaculation (ejaculation going backward to the bladder).