Home › Blogs › figleaf's blog

Breast Cancer as Loss of Sensation

Thu, 2009-11-05 23:21 — figleaf

Nice link and analysis of a Salon.com article on gendered advice to cancer-surgery patients from of Historiann

Here’s an interesting article in Salon by Ann Bauer, ”Sex Without Nipples,” about the differential between counseling and treatment offered to cancer patients about sexual issues in men’s versus women’s cancer surgeries.  Sadly, I’m not surprised–as we’ve seen before, somehow it’s all about teh menz and their feelings and their sexual satisfaction, no matter whose body has the cancer.  Whereas prostate cancer patients are counseled heavily about the sexual side-effects of their cancer treatments, women who opt for mastectomies are never advised about the possible consequences to their sex lives.

Read the quote in context here.

A lot of you have probably seen the Salon.com article so check out Historiann’s article instead.

For myself I have to say this is the first time I’ve seen anyone talk about breasts in terms of the woman’s loss of sensation instead of all the usual punditry about social attitudes, body-image, and “femininity.” Nipples aren’t the be-all and end-all of women’s erogenous zones porn and popular culture makes them out to be — minus the hype, and the attention, and consequently the practice I have a suspicion that the average man’s nipples are comparably sensitive to women’s. But since (again with a little practice) that ain’t nothing to sneeze at…

Fri, 2009-11-06 06:30 — Sugarmag (not verified) #permalink

Yes but I think that it makes a lot of sense to bring this up. Women’s breasts are sexual. One could argue that bodies are sexual and breasts no more so than any other body part, but in our culture breasts are sexualized and I think that porn is a reflection of that rather than the cause. Many men really like women’s breasts and many women enjoy it when the man they are with pays attention to them. No one close to me has had breast cancer but I would imagine that it has a major impact on the survivor’s sexuality and loss of sensation in the breast is part of that. I have not read the article but I glad you linked it, I’m gonna go read it.

Fri, 2009-11-06 07:56 — Sungold (not verified) #permalink

I was really frustrated with the Salon article. It raises a really important point – health care providers aren’t talking about loss of nipple sensation – but it frames the issue entirely wrongly. The counseling most prostate cancer patients get is, frankly, worthless. They often aren’t informed that they will no longer be able to ejaculate after prostatectomy. Many are not even advised to masturbate. They are not told that a cock ring might help maintain erections. They’re frequently given a prescription for Viagra, informed about the possibility of injections, and then sent home to fight their insurance company to actually approve their Viagra prescription.

So if women lobby to get the same kind of counseling as men get, they stand to gain almost nothing. We need to insist that both men and women have access to counseling and medical care that will help them reclaim sexual pleasure after cancer.

Dang it all, Sungold, of course you’re right. It was late and I thought about thepoints you’ve raised in the past about this. I’m still going to stick with my main point that “nobody cares what she feels, how does she look” is worth it’s own post. But yeah, one case where “eqality” might make women worse off. Thanks for the nudge.

Fri, 2009-11-06 08:41 — Viverrine (not verified) #permalink

As someone who has NEVER been able to successfully orgasm without nipple stimulation, this( which I hadn’t known of) definitely hit me with a sense of dread( thankfully I don’t have breast cancer—-but who’s to say I won’t?). And yeah, they SHOULD be bringing it up and not making it sound like it’s all about appearances.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.