Singlehood and partnerships in healthy people and childhood cancer survivors: A focus on satisfaction

Survivors of adult onset cancers frequently report problems with sexuality and romantic relationships. However, little is known about how childhood cancer survivors experience this. Therefore, we studied whether childhood cancer survivors differed in their sexual and romantic relationships and their views on this, as compared to their peers. First, we did a large study among listeners of a yearly popular Dutch radio event (TOP2000) to develop a new scale that measures people’s satisfaction with their current relationship status (either being in a relationship or being single). People in a relationship were happier with having a partner than singles were with being single. People’s sex lives appears to be a major factor in this difference: people who have a partner have sex more often and are more satisfied with their sex life, and both of these factors predict how happy people are with their relationship status. Second, we repeated this study among childhood cancer survivors and found the same results. Survivors had similar views on their appearance, similar sexual experiences (i.e. age at first intercourse, number of sexual partners), sexual satisfaction, and relationship status satisfaction as their healthy peers. Overall, this study showed no long-term sexual or romantic problems after childhood cancer.