Women’s satisfaction and body image long-term after risk-reducing mastectomy – the partners’ perspective

Purpose: To investigate partners’ perception of women’s perception regarding long-term psychological outcomes after risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) and immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) by investigating their perception of the women’s long-term evaluation regarding satisfaction with aesthetic outcome, body image, and sexuality, and to compare partners’ and women’s levels of anxiety/depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Methods Partners responded to the same questionnaires as the women without modifications. The partners responded to HAD and SF-36 from their own perspective, and the remaining questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-BRR26, BIS, and SAQ) from their perception of how the women would have responded. The responses of the partners were compared with the responses of the women, as well as with the HRQoL of the normative Swedish population. Results Thirty-six (60%) partners participated. The partners’ perception of the women’s satisfaction with the aesthetic outcome was lower compared with the women’s own perceptions ( p <0.05). Partners’ perception of women’s perceived level of body image problems was higher than the women’s response ( p <0.05). There was an agreement in the perception of the sexuality-related questions. Partners and women had in general higher levels of HRQoL compared with the age-standardised normative Swedish population. Conclusion This study, albeit small, showed that partners overestimated women’s dissatisfaction with long-term aesthetic outcome and body image, while there were no discrepancies between the two groups regarding aspects of sexuality. Both groups demonstrated high levels of HRQoL long-term after RRM and IBR. RRM is a personal choice, but knowledge about long-term effects involve both women and their partners.