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
. 2022 Dec;30(12):10441-10452.
doi: 10.1007/s00520-022-07388-6. Epub 2022 Oct 10.

Non-physician's challenges in sexual and reproductive health care provision for women of reproductive age with cancer: a scoping review of barriers and facilitators

Qi Chen  1 , Emma Carpenter  2 , Kari White  3
Affiliations

Non-physician's challenges in sexual and reproductive health care provision for women of reproductive age with cancer: a scoping review of barriers and facilitators

Qi Chen et al. Support Care Cancer. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: The American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice guidelines recommend that non-physicians such as nurses, social workers, and psychologists should be prepared to discuss fertility and sexual concerns with patients. However, literature showed that the utilization rate of sexual and reproductive care for women with cancer remained low. We conducted a scoping review to describe non-physicians' roles, barriers, and facilitators providing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care to women of reproductive age with cancer.

Methods: We searched six databases for articles that met the following criteria: (1) English language; (2) original research; (3) non-physician providers; (4) women with cancer under age 50. We categorized barriers and facilitators at the system-, individual-, and clinical encounter-levels from providers' and patients' perspectives.

Results: We included 27 studies from 3451 retrieved articles. The majority of studies have a focus on fertility preservation or sexuality (n = 25). At the system level, the main barriers for non-physicians were lack of SRH care guidelines and collaborating experts. Concerns for patients included socioeconomic and geographic constraints in obtaining care. At the encounter level, providers and patients lacked experience discussing SRH. At the individual level, providers' lack of knowledge in SRH treatment options and interprofessional collaboration and patients' lack of awareness about treatment effects hindered SRH discussions. Facilitators include the availability of SRH programs and specialists, and rapport between providers and patients.

Conclusions: Supporting non-physicians to provide SRH services to women with cancer requires investment in clinical guidelines, interprofessional collaboration, and training in patient communication.

Keywords: Cancer; Fertility; Non-physician; Sexuality; Women.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Wen YF, Chen MX, Yin G et al (2021) The global, regional, and national burden of cancer among adolescents and young adults in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a population-based study. J Hematol OncolJ Hematol Oncol 14:89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13045-021-01093-3 - DOI
    1. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL et al (2021) Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 71:209–249. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21660 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chao C, Bhatia S, Xu L et al (2020) Chronic comorbidities among survivors of adolescent and young adult cancer. J Clin Oncol JCO2000722. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.20.00722 - DOI
    1. WHO Reproductive health. https://www.who.int/westernpacific/health-topics/reproductive-health . Accessed 21 Jul 2021
    1. WHO Sexual health. https://www.who.int/health-topics/sexual-health . Accessed 8 Jul 2022

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources