Interview OV47

Age at interview: 44

Age at diagnosis: 36

Brief Outline:

Ovarian cancer diagnosed in 1996. Treated by surgical removal of ovaries and womb and chemotherapy.

Background:

Married.

No longer felt she was a sexual person after surgery, though her husband was still attracted to her.

Okay. I think initially, again I felt so ill from the surgery and the chemo that it wasn't really an issue. I completely lost my libido but then I assumed it was because of all the treatment I was having. Unfortunately it didn't come back. It wasn't until quite a long term after the surgery that I realised they'd removed quite a bit of my vagina, and that did have a profound impact on me sexually because I didn't feel like a whole person. It hadn't bothered me having my uterus removed but when I found out some of the vagina was gone that, it did affect me. I just had no libido at all because I didn't feel like a sexual person any more.  

And so that's been a very, it's been a problem for us because my husband has been very keen to show all the way through that it's not affected his, he still feels very attracted. And, you know, he feels it's important to let me know that he does, and he's been a real sweetheart that way. But the problem is I don't want to know. I think I just feel that my body is just been so broken and beaten that I find it hard to think of it as something to celebrate, and I think my sexuality was very wrapped up in that. And I just don't really have any more because of that.