Intimate partner violence and time to first treatment in women with gynecologic or breast cancer

Intimate partner violence in women with breast and gynaecologic cancers: A systematic review

“…Most of the selected studies mainly recommended performing IPV screening among women with breast and gynaecology cancers, who are likely to be victims of violence (Coker et al, 2017; Jetelina et al, 2020; Sawin et al, 2009; Sawin & Parker, 2011) and several of the studies recommended cancer screening in women with an IPV history (Coker et al, 2000; Thananowan & Vongsirimas, 2016). Reasons such as sexual dysfunction (Modesitt et al, 2006) and poor body image (Roberts et al, 2016)) makes women more vulnerable to being a victim of violence. Fouladi et al, (2021) focused on patients and legislators in her recommendations rather than focusing on health care providers and believe that women's empowerment in different dimensions, including increasing the level of education and women's employment, creating or improving social networks, reforming current laws or adopting effective community‐based rules can help to reduce IPV among women with cancer (Fouladi et al, 2021).…”

“…Therefore, women with long‐term IPV should be screened more thoroughly by health care providers for symptoms of cancers, such as breast and cervical cancers, and women with gynaecological cancers should be screened for signs of violence. Due to financial dependencies and issues such as submission to violence (Tausch, 2019) or the taboo of exposing sexual violence, especially in older women (Band‐Winterstein et al, 2021), most women try to ignore and not disclose IPV, which in turn make them more likely not to continue their disease treatment, or refuse to have breast reconstruction after mastectomy (Roberts et al, 2016), leading to loss of self‐esteem and poor body image and making them even more vulnerable (Roberts et al, 2016; Sawin & Parker, 2011). Quality of life also decreases in these women due to cancer (Coker et al, 2017).…”

“…In some cases, the culture of Muslim women, the lack of sensitivity in society, and the lack of proper response to the experiences of female victims of violence result in their marginalization and reduced use of social services and support (Milani & Leschied, 2020). Studies have also shown that women who are victims of IPV are usually reluctant to undergo screening tests such as Pap smear tests or continue treatment such as breast reconstruction after mastectomy (Roberts et al, 2016;Sawin et al, 2009; Sawin & Parker, 2011).…”

“…Reasons such as sexual dysfunction (Modesitt et al, 2006) and poor body image (Roberts et al, 2016)) makes women more vulnerable to being a victim of violence. Fouladi et al, (2021) focused on patients and legislators in her recommendations rather than focusing on health care providers and believe that women's empowerment in different dimensions, including increasing the level of education and women's employment, creating or improving social networks, reforming current laws or adopting effective community-based rules can help to reduce IPV among women with cancer (Fouladi et al, 2021).…”

“…Many studies have investigated the underlying factors of IPV and have found one of the influential factors to be the incidence of chronic disease in one of the spouses (Bryan et al, 2019; Coker et al, 2017; Zakrison et al, 2018). For example, there is ample evidence that women with cancer are more vulnerable due to the psychological and behavioural changes they experience in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and are more likely to experience IPV (Coker et al, 2017; De Castro et al, 2018); this is partly due to psychological changes due to social isolation, poor health and dependence on others (Roberts et al, 2016). Therapeutic measures such as dialysis or chemotherapy are among the main reasons for the increase in the experience of sexual violence in women (Kapamadzija, 2018).…”