Less than 10 percent of women have minor sexual issues following a lumpectomy. After modified radical mastectomy, only 30-40 percent of women experience sexual problems.
Breasts symbolize many different things in one's culture.
They can represent many aspects of a woman's sexual identity including, femininity, motherhood, and eroticism. In fact, recent studies show that most women's partners report more concern about the threat of the cancer to their partner's life and well-being than over the physical breast changes associated with a lumpectomy or mastectomy . Most men and women surveyed said they simply learned to tune out their partner's altered or missing breast during lovemaking and instead to focus on the sexual experience itself. Intimate gestures like kissing and fondling the breast can cause pain or discomfort in the post-operative period, and sometimes long after chemotherapy or radiation therapy is over. It's likely that you and your partner will have to make some adjustments in your sexual encounters, although it definitely doesn't mean that sex has to be tiptoed around or stopped altogether.