Psychosexual experiences of men following radiotherapy for prostate cancer in Johannesburg

M.Tech. (Radiography)Abstract: Knowledge regarding patients‟ experiences and needs enables health care providers to improve on their quality of care. As such, it is important that scholars in the field of health care continually examine the needs of patients. This is also true for patients with prostate cancer (PCa). In the case of PCa patients, comprehensive sexual counselling is not a routine procedure or common practice in oncology departments. Men diagnosed with PCa experience varied sexual experiences following radiotherapy (RT). The sexual functioning of a man may be further affected by various coexisting factors, including disease, psychogenic responses to cancer, medical treatments, cultural issues and socio-economic status. The literature reveals that PCa also causes significant psychological distress for the patients‟ partners. The psychosexual experiences of men following External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT) for PCa in Johannesburg have not been explored or described in depth. South African Health Care Professionals (HCPs) hardly conduct sexual health-related research studies or communicate information about sexual health adequately to patients due to multicultural stereotypes about sexuality within the African mind-set. The above-mentioned rationale is indicative of compromised men‟s health care in oncology clinics. This study was an interdisciplinary research study linking the radiation oncology and psychology departments. The aim of this study was to explore and describe the psychosexual experiences of PCa patients following RT. The objective of the study was to develop psychosexual counselling guidelines that can be utilised to guide health care providers in the field of radiation oncology in providing quality patient care. The study utilised a qualitative method and a phenomenological approach. The study was furthermore guided by an interpretivist research paradigm. A purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit information-rich participants. The information-rich participants of this study were those who completed radical EBRT in the past 6 to 18 months. Such participants were seen as a priority to participate..