Cancer DOESN'T end your sex life, study claims: Survivors make love 'just as much as those who never had the disease'

Cancer survivors need not worry about their sex lives – they make love as frequently and function as well as others their age, new research has found. 

Around half of survivors aged over 50 were having regular sex - the same proportion as cancer-free people of the same age, experts discovered.

But survivors were more likely to feel dissatisfied with their sex lives.  

The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, compared the sex lives of 6,699 older people including 561 who had been diagnosed with cancer.

It aimed to see what after-effects the disease had on quality of life. 

Around half of people diagnosed with cancer in the UK will live for at least 10 years.

The study found 49 per cent of cancer survivors had ‘frequent’ sex – defined as two to three times a month – compared to 50 per cent of the control group.

Both groups experienced similar levels of sexual problems, with 32 per cent of women saying they had problems becoming aroused compared to 31 per cent of cancer survivors.

In men, 40 per cent of cancer survivors had experienced erectile dysfunction, compared to 39 per cent of others.

The study, published in the journal Cancer, said: ‘Older people with cancer do not experience greater problems with sexual activity or functioning than age-matched, cancer-free controls.

‘A diagnosis of cancer does not seem to affect whether or not people have sex, what they do when they have sex, and their sexual function.’

But almost a fifth of women and a third of men who had survived cancer reported feeling dissatisfied, compared with around one in ten women and a fifth of men of the same age who had not had cancer.

One in ten women cancer survivors worried about their libido, compared with seven per cent of those who hadn’t had cancer. 

Martin Ledwick, Cancer Research UK’s head information nurse, said: ‘Although some cancer treatments are known to impact on sexual function, this study suggests that the majority of cancer patients have similar sexual function and activity as the general population.'

This highlights the need for health professionals to make sure they talk about sex with all patients not just the ones whose sexual function is likely to be affected by their cancer or its treatment.

'However, cancer patients in the study were more likely to be dissatisfied with their sex lives even though they didn’t report a higher incidence of sexual dysfunction – like erectile problems in men.'

Dr Sarah Jackson, study author, said: ‘We hope our findings will put cancer survivors’ concerns to rest – showing that they are just as sexually active and function just as well as others their age.’ 

In a previous study, many patients said they had worried about the disease’s effect on their love lives but had felt embarrassed raising the issue with their clinician because it seemed a ‘side issue’ to the main focus of survival.