Interview 46

Age at interview: 60

Age at diagnosis: 55

Brief Outline:

She has had chronic lymphocytic leukaemia for several years and been treated with chemotherapy. She is in remission.

Background:

She is retired and married with two adult children. Ethnic background: White British.

Since having CLL* she has lost interest in sex but doesn't know how much this may be due to the...

So have you had any problems with your sex life with those feelings and the way you felt generally?

 

Yes, I’m not really interested any more unfortunately. I don’t know if that’s anything that, again, if that’s the menopause or whether it’s just… It’s quite hard to explain but it’s never really been that high on my agenda, to be honest. So I prefer, I sort of quite like the companionable relationship. I’m not saying that it’s completely out of the window but I suppose it does affect it because if you’re depressive anyway and you have leukaemia you’re going to be even more depressed. And when you’re depressed you’re not really interested in having a sexual relationship. So yes I suppose you have to say it has affected it. It’s probably prolonged the sort of not bothering about it more than it might have done.

 

Is that a problem in your relationship?

 

It’s a problem where I do feel a bit guilty about it. It’s something we don’t talk about. Whether that’s because my husband’s accepted the thing the way it is or whether he doesn’t want to talk about it, I don’t know.