Frankly Speaking: Sex After Breast Cancer

[Vic]

From moisturizers and lubricants to decreased libido and UTI's, this talk was informative and may be helpful to many of you.

Frankly Speaking: Sex After Breast Cancer
2011-03-17

Speaker: Susan Kellogg-Spadt, CRNP, PhD

http://lbbc.org/Event-Archive/2011-03-17-Frankly-Speaking-Sex-After-Breast-Cancer

Downloading the transcript and reading it that way was excellent and the speaker offers some outstanding information that is both healthy and tested.

Hope you enjoy!

[tricia keegan]

Thanks for posting Vic!

[MCS]

Vic,
Thank you for posting this link to the podcast and script. this is the most "frank" and comprehensive coverage of the matter that I have ever heard
I wish I would have heard it a year ago
xoxo
Maria (mcs)

[karen z]

Thanks very much for posting.

[Mtngrl]

There are so many things I knew nothing about until I read this. Sex education is a lifelong endeavor, isn't it?

[Hopeful]

I enjoyed this article, and learned of some treatment options I was not previously aware of. However, there are some discondances between the ingredients that Dr. Kellog-Spadt recommends we avoid and the ingredients in the products she recommends. I have spent some time on-line at drugstore.com and in actual drug stores this morning reading the product labels, and this is what I found:

1. In her discussion of vibrators, she says to avoid products containing parabens. However, most of the lubricants and moisturizers she recommends contain parapbens: Slipperly Stuff, Wet, Astroglide (Natural) [although drugstore.com lists a different, paraben-free Astroglide], Replens and Me Again.

2. She specifically says to avoid moisturizers with Glycerin, however, one of her top choices, KY Liquibeads, contains glycerin.

While parabens are estrogenic, glycerin is not, so I am not sure why she says to avoid it unless it interferes with moisturizing.

What she liked about Me Again was the ingredient hyaluronic acid, which I found is available as a vitamin supplement, though I could not find it in a lotion.

I am going to try her remaining suggestions, and will post if I find anything that is really remarkable.

Read your labels!

Hopeful

[Mtngrl]

Hopeful,

Thanks for doing the detective work!

I bought a lubricant that was recommended by the hospital, only to find it has parabens.

On that same subject, I went to a special class called "look good, feel better" at the hospital. They gave me a whole bunch of makeup, most of which has parabens in it.

[Hopeful]

Amy,

I was surprised, because it certainly sounded like the doctor was familiar with the ingredients when she discussed them. That is why I wanted to post what I found.

For the record, I am not anti-estrogens altogether. With my medical team's consent, I have used Estrace cream for VA, which worked very well. However, I think that once the atrophy is dealt with initially, there should be some way to maintain the cellular integrity that does not involve hormonal preparations. At least with the Estrace (and similar products like vagifem and e-string), the production is regulated, and when I use it, I know what the dosage is. With estrogenic compounds like parabens, there is no way to know the relative strength of the compounds and how much estrogen-like substances you are using, because there is no regulation of it and no standardized dosing. I would rather use the real thing, when I know what I am getting, than guess about these other preparations.

Hopeful