Interview CC23

Age at interview: 35

Age at diagnosis: 34

Brief Outline:

Diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2001. Wertheim's hysterectomy, followed by external radiotherapy.

Background:

Housewife; married, 2 children.

She describes how sex has been different after her hysterectomy and external radiotherapy.

It's certainly not the same now as it was before. You can relax but not fully relax because its quite painful. It can be quite painful because it is on average, apparently I've been told, I didn't know, but apparently the average size of the vagina can vary between six and ten centimetres. And its like the inner tube of a bicycle tyre and it stretches, but if I've got two centimetres less than what I would have had before then yes I notice a difference. So we have to be a little bit more careful. And yeah it can be quite painful. I mean the doctor, the surgeon did say to me that it could be painful forever more and that's probably what's happened to me actually but as long as you're careful, you can still, you can still carry on. Its just not what it was before, its not the same because you can't totally relax and forget that its never happened.