Social work with challenged women: sexism, sexuality, and the female cancer experience

The existence of cancer in a woman usually provokes irrevocable changes in both her body and psyche. When these changes involve an integral part of one's self concept, as in the cases of female breast or reproductive tract cancers, problems of redefinition and transformation of self-image result. Important issues in the care of female cancer patients cannot be divorced from health care procedures for women in general. This article is an exploration of the daily reality of women who confront the horror and challenge of cancer in areas of their bodies that are intricately related to their sexuality. While attempting to define the problems and discover some feasible social work interventions to alleviate these difficulties, two major issues emerged: the sexual politics of medicine and the psychosocial trauma of cancer. This study will have as its primary focus the second of these two issues.