Social Representations of the Body and Sexual Satisfaction in Mastecomized Women and their Partners

Women who undergo mastectomy and their partners face a transformed body, which has several implications, including an effect on their sexual satisfaction. The aims of the present study were to understand the social representations of the female body, the social representations of the mastectomized body, and the level of sexual satisfaction of these couples. Ten couples (mastectomized women and their partners) were included in the study. The study instruments were a scale of sexual satisfaction and the free word association technique (FWAT), using the expressions “female body” and “mastectomized female body” as stimuli. The mastectomized body was observed to have more negative representations related to the appearance of the breast(s). Couples’ sexual satisfaction decreased after mastectomy, interfering with the women’s self-image and with marital life. The need to expand public policies targeting this population is emphasized, with a focus on reconstructive surgery and work with social representations to revise the sexualization of breasts. Such policies can improve quality of life for mastectomized women and their partners.