Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul 22;15(7):e0236180.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236180. eCollection 2020.

Experiences of a web-based psycho-educational intervention targeting sexual dysfunction and fertility distress in young adults with cancer-A self-determination theory perspective

Claire Micaux Obol  1 , Claudia Lampic  1   2 , Lena Wettergren  1 , Lisa Ljungman  1   3 , Lars E Eriksson  4   5   6
Affiliations

Experiences of a web-based psycho-educational intervention targeting sexual dysfunction and fertility distress in young adults with cancer-A self-determination theory perspective

Claire Micaux Obol et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: Sexual and reproductive health are significant aspects of quality of life. Healthcare often fails to provide adequate support for young cancer survivors in this area, hence the need to develop more effective interventions. The present study aimed to describe experiences of participating in a web-based psycho-educational intervention focusing on sexual dysfunction and fertility distress after cancer, and to explore these experiences within the theoretical frame of the basic psychological needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy according to self-determination theory.

Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews with 24 women and 4 men, age 19-40, were abductively analyzed using the Framework approach for qualitative content analysis.

Results: Participant experiences corresponded well with the three main deductive themes competence, relatedness and autonomy, divided into a total of nine subthemes illustrating varying degrees of basic need satisfaction with considerable nuance but not without ambiguity. While satisfaction of the need for competence could be linked to the amount of information in relation to participants' cognitive capacity, satisfaction of the need for relatedness seemed to be of special importance for these young adults with cancer experience. Invitation to the program meant a chance at alleviating loneliness and normalizing problems, symptoms and concerns. Participants' descriptions of perceived autonomy support were more challenging and ambiguous, because of the many contradictions in participants' responses to their variable situations.

Conclusion: Basic psychological needs were confirmed as flexible positions along a continuum rather than discrete and mutually exclusive qualities. Understanding the variety of basic need satisfaction may enhance the design of future web-based interventions to be even more inclusive, tailorable and autonomy-supportive. Further research is warranted to determine the role of basic need satisfaction as a possible mediator for web-based psychoeducational interventions in cancer survivorship care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Typology for using the program.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Reported obstacles to using the web-based psychoeducational program.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Overview of themes and subthemes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wettergren L, Kent EE, Mitchell SA, Zebrack B, Lynch CF, Rubenstein MB, et al. Cancer negatively impacts on sexual function in adolescents and young adults: The AYA HOPE study. Psychooncology. 2017;26(10):1632–9. Epub 2016/05/31. 10.1002/pon.4181 . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sanchez Varela V, Zhou ES, Bober SL. Management of sexual problems in cancer patients and survivors. Current problems in cancer. 2013;37(6):319–52. Epub 2013/12/18. 10.1016/j.currproblcancer.2013.10.009 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Olsson M, Steineck G, Enskar K, Wilderang U, Jarfelt M. Sexual function in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors-a population-based study. J Cancer Surviv. 2018. Epub 2018/03/07. 10.1007/s11764-018-0684-x . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schover LR, van der Kaaij M, van Dorst E, Creutzberg C, Huyghe E, Kiserud CE. Sexual dysfunction and infertility as late effects of cancer treatment. EJC supplements: EJC: official journal of EORTC, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer [et al. ]. 2014;12(1):41–53. Epub 2015/07/29. 10.1016/j.ejcsup.2014.03.004 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vassilakopoulou M, Boostandoost E, Papaxoinis G, de La Motte Rouge T, Khayat D, Psyrri A. Anticancer treatment and fertility: Effect of therapeutic modalities on reproductive system and functions. Critical reviews in oncology/hematology. 2016;97:328–34. Epub 2015/10/21. 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2015.08.002 . - DOI - PubMed

Publication types