A Prospective and Randomized Controlled Evaluation of Sexual Health Education Program of Gynecological Cancer Women

Evaluation of a Gender-sensitive Sexual Health Education Program for Women With Gynecologic Cancer: A Prospective and Randomized Controlled Evaluation of Sexual Health Education Program of Cervical Cancer Women

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Gender-Sensitive -Sexual Health Education Program (GS-SHEP) in enhancing the sexual health of patients with gynecologic cancer.

This study recruited patients with cervical cancer from the gynecological wards of a large-scale medical center in northern Taiwan. A total of 63 participants were divided into two groups. The control group (n=30) received routine sexual health teaching (a 10-15-minute routine individual sexual health education and a sexual health pamphlet without a gender-sensitive and theoretically based design. The experimental group (n=33) received the GS-SHEP (a 10-15-minute individual sexual health education and a sexual health pamphlet). GS-SHEP effectiveness was examined using a self-report instrument to measure background information and three dependent variables: "sexual knowledge," "sexual attitudes," "sexual self-efficacy", and "sexual activity". Data were collected at baseline, one week, six weeks, four months, and seven months after intervention and analyzed using the statistical software SPSS 20.0.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Women were recruited to participant if they were just been diagnosis with cervical cancertment within the previous 1 weeks.
2. 20 to 80 years old.
3. Able to read, write, and speak Chinese.
4. In order to comply with the spirit of gender sensitivity in this study, participants do not exclude whether they have a partner or different sexual orientation.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Presence of other malignant disease.
2. Impaired mental function.
3. sexual dysfunction (pre-existing sexual dysfunction may confound the impact of cancer treatment on sexual activity).
4. History of female genital organ surgery before diagnosis of gynecological cancer, or a dependent functional status.