Survive to Thrive: Improving Sexual Health After Cancer

Many patients who are diagnosed with cancer and receive subsequent treatments experience life-altering side effects including fatigue, sleep disturbances and changes in appetite and taste. However, one such change patients can experience, decreases in libido and sexual desire doesn’t always receive as much attention as the others.

In this week’s episode, we spoke with Dr. Elizabeth Poynor, a gynecologic oncologist and advanced pelvic surgeon, who recently led a discussion during Susan G. Komen Greater New York City’s Sex and Breast Cancer Conference about how patients can work to improve their sexual health while facing cancer and its treatments.

Poynor, who discussed how a breast cancer diagnosis can impact a patient’s libido, encourages her patients not just to survive, but thrive by speaking with their doctors.

“We want to have a healthy life and a joyful life and for many women, not all, their sexuality is a component of it,” Poynor said in an interview with CURE^®.