Intimacy and MBC: Overcoming Challenges to Reclaim Your Sexual Health

Living Our Breast Lives

Moist is always better! Join Wren and Brittany for this lighthearted and fun episode as they discuss the physical, mental, and emotional challenges that Metastatic Breast Cancer can have on one’s sex life, including the toll it can take on one’s vaginal tissue.

Learn about the importance of vaginal health, how to get there if it is lacking, and ways to help. Enjoy this very personal and educational episode about how it’s never too late to get back to the sex life you envision for yourself regardless of the circumstance!

You’re newly diagnosed with breast cancer; you’re thrown into early menopause way before your time, your libido has diminished, and intimacy has become non existent.

What may cause painful intercourse once diagnosed with breast cancer?

• Artificial menopause leading to vaginal dryness which can lead to painful intercourse or chafing
• Vaginal tissue losing its elasticity and the ability to stretch which causes the pelvic floor muscles to tighten. “If you don’t use it, you lose it!”
• Lack of good blood flow if those muscle are not used regularly as they once were
• Stress pockets in the pelvic floor area that contribute to the tightening of muscles
• Mental health struggles can block your libido/ sex drive - “if your mind ain’t right, the sex ain’t right!”

What can you do to help overcome these struggles with intercourse or tightening dysfunctional vaginal muscles?

• Schedule an appointment with a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist who specialize in pelvic floor dysfunction
• Use different moisturizers to help restore the vaginal tissue (avoid hormonal moisturizers)
• Try Coconut oil!
• Dilator usage to help stretch the vaginal tissue and increase blood flow again
• Different yoga positions will help to relax those muscles
• Mindfulness/ meditation consistently
• Noticing your activators or stressors to help eliminate them
• Schedule an appointment with a sexual couples therapist or counselor
• Vaginal botox which numbs the area; less chafing, paralyzing the muscles which numbs the area

Additionally, hear from Wren regarding what fertility treatments are like for a young cancer patient who wants to freeze their embryos before starting chemotherapy. Chemotherapy doesn’t just damage cancer cells, it can damage your ovaries as well. Freezing your eggs prior to the start of treatment allows you to have options in the future; whether that involves conceiving naturally on your own or involving a gestational carrier for surrogacy purposes.