Effects of Therapeutic-Supportive Interventions on Sexual Satisfaction and Function in Women with Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review

Context: Breast cancer in women can cause sexual dissatisfaction and hinder sexual function as a result of treatment processes. Several studies have been conducted on the impact of therapeutic-supportive interventions on sexual satisfaction and performance; nonetheless, contradictory results have been reported. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to review the effects of therapeutic-supportive interventions on sexual satisfaction and function in patients with breast cancer. In this study, a quality assessment of published articles was also conducted.
Evidence Acquisition: In this systematic review, electronic databases, including Google Scholar,Web of Sciences, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, ProQuest, Scopus, and PubMed (including Medline), were searched to retrieve articles published between 1990 and 2016.The articles were screened with regard to breast cancer in 4 stages. Articles, which focused on therapeutic-supportive interventions and sexual satisfaction and function of patients with breast cancer, were included in the study. According to the heterogeneity index between articles (Cochran’s Q and I square tests), the random effects model, inverse variance weighting method, and standardized Cohen’s statistics were applied to estimate the mean differences in sexual function and satisfaction.
Six articles studied the effects of therapeutic-supportive interventions on sexual satisfaction, while 8 articles assessed the effects of these interventions on sexual function in patients with breast cancer. The standardized mean difference of sexual satisfaction between the intervention and control groups was -0.03 (95% CI, -0.55 - 0.49). In addition, the standardized mean difference of sexual function between the intervention and control groups was 0.14 (95% CI, -0.28 - 0.57).
The results showed that therapeutic-supportive interventions had no impact on the sexual satisfaction and function of patients with breast cancer.