Di. Marks et al., A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF HIGH-DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY AND BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION ON SEXUAL FUNCTION IN THE FIRST YEAR AFTER TRANSPLANT, Bone marrow transplantation, 19(8), 1997, pp. 819-822
Patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplanta
tion (BMT) may experience a variety of abnormalities of psychological
and physical function including sexual dysfunction, However, no study
has prospectively evaluated whether there is an association between se
xual dysfunction and BMT, In a previous study in which we analyzed the
sexual function of 30 patients immediately before transplant, we foun
d that nearly half of all patients had sexual dysfunction using the De
rogatis Interview for Sexual Functioning for males and females, The fi
ndings of the pilot study led us to hypothesize that the incidence of
sexual dysfunction would not be significantly altered by BMT; we perfo
rmed a prospective study designed to test this hypothesis, In this stu
dy a further 20 patients about to undergo BMT were surveyed, making a
total of 50. Thirty-one of 38 survivors were reanalyzed 3-6 months aft
er transplant, The major finding of the study is that the incidence of
sexual dysfunction is unchanged 3 months after transplant (48 vs 36%,
P = NS), The mean total score on the DISF was decreased by 7.5 points
but this was also not significant, A preliminary analysis of 16 patie
nts surveyed at 12 months post-BMT suggests little change in sexual fu
nction between 3 and 12 months post-BMT. We conclude that in the first
12 months after high-dose chemotherapy and BMT the pretreatment diffi
culties remain.