Find out how chemotherapy affects your sexual health.
Chemotherapy, also referred to as chemo, is a treatment that uses drugs to target cancer cells.
Undergoing chemotherapy can affect you mentally and physically and can make managing relationships and sexual health extremely difficult. For many people, chemotherapy can be a lifesaving treatment, but it does come with its own slate of side effects.
Understanding and knowing what these side effects are can help you better prepare for the path ahead.
Chemotherapy uses powerful chemical substances to kill fast-growing cells. It's most often used as a cancer treatment for its ability to slow or stop rapidly reproducing cancer cells from multiplying and spreading.
There are more than 100 different kinds of drugs that fall under the chemotherapy umbrella. Depending on the type and severity of cancer, a doctor may prescribe just one of these drugs or a combination of many. Chemotherapy can affect people differently, depending on their genetic makeup and specific treatment regimen. For some people, the side effects of chemotherapy may be relatively mild and treatable, while others may experience more severe side effects and even serious related complications.
Chemotherapy drugs vary in their chemical composition, as well as in how they are used. While chemo drugs may not all treat cancer in the same exact way, they generally work by targeting the cell cycle, which is a series of phases each cell goes through on its way to becoming a mature, functioning cell.
Cancer cells are known to multiply more quickly than healthy cells. For this reason, chemotherapy is a particularly effective treatment choice since the drugs are able to target and kill cells at different phases of the cell cycle. According to the American Cancer Society, doctors typically plan doses of chemotherapy drugs according to the timing of cell phases. Unfortunately, chemotherapy can't discriminate between cancer cells and healthy cells and ends up killing both, which can lead to side effects.
Chemotherapy is primarily used to kill cancer cells. Depending on the type and severity of the cancer, chemotherapy may be used as the main treatment for the disease or only after other treatments (such as surgery), in order to kill any rogue cancer cells that may be left over and hidden.
Chemotherapy is sometimes used to prime a patient for other treatments, according to Mayo Clinic. For example, chemo may be used to shrink a tumor to increase the chances of success for radiation therapy or surgery in the future. In other cases, your doctor may prescribe palliative chemotherapy—an interdisciplinary treatment that relieves pain but does not necessarily target the cause of the condition—to provide symptom relief.
Though chemotherapy is primarily used as cancer treatment, it can be used in lower doses to treat immune system disorders and bone marrow diseases.
Chemotherapy is used to treat a number of cancers, but some common ones include breast cancer, prostate cancer and testicular cancer. Chemotherapy is used for a wide array of cancers for both children and adults because of its effectiveness in killing cancer cells. When determining the best treatment regimen for a patient's cancer, a doctor works to balance the side effects and the benefits of chemotherapy. This means chemotherapy is one of many treatments used to address cancer.
Finding out that you will soon start chemotherapy can be daunting, but knowing what to expect may relieve some uneasiness. Chemotherapy is administered on a cyclical basis, so depending on the stage of your cancer and your individualized treatment regimen, you can expect a treatment session anywhere from multiple times per week to once every few weeks.
The frequency and duration of treatment come down to your personal needs and decisions made by you and your doctor.
Chemotherapy does carry a risk of side effects, and they can range in severity. It's also important to remember that chemotherapy affects everyone differently. For some people, side effects from chemo emerge immediately, while others may not feel the effects until several hours or days after treatment. It should be noted that not everyone who undergoes chemotherapy experiences side effects.
Common side effects of chemotherapy include:
Talk to your doctor about any side effects you experience. Many adverse effects of chemotherapy can be treated and typically fade away when treatment ends.
For many people, the reality is their work and life responsibilities don't stop just because they have to undergo chemotherapy. Chemo can take a serious toll on someone mentally, physically and emotionally, making working during treatment more difficult.
The best thing you can do is listen to your body and prioritize rest when you need it. This may mean you need to communicate with your boss and co-workers and lean on your professional and emotional support systems.
Some common tips to help you get through chemotherapy include:
Chemotherapy has intense effects on your body, so it's important to be mindful of your diet and provide your body with the fuel it needs to heal. This attention may also help you avoid certain side effects associated with what you consume.
Talk to your doctor about any supplements you're taking and learn if there are any you should start taking to help you get through treatment. Keeping a healthy, balanced diet and drinking plenty of fluids (six to eight glasses of water a day, at minimum) can have a positive influence on your energy levels during treatment and can prevent dehydration.
Loss of appetite and nausea are common side effects of chemotherapy, which can make it difficult to follow these best practices. If you're struggling with these or other side effects—such as mouth sores, pain or digestive issues—that are getting in the way of your ability to stay nourished, talk to your doctor about potential treatments to help mitigate your symptoms.
Experts say it is generally OK to have sex while undergoing chemotherapy, but if you have questions about whether sex is recommended in your particular situation, you should talk to your doctor before proceeding. Whether it's a good idea to have sex during chemotherapy comes down to how you feel and whether the type of cancer you have may call for you to hold off for a time. For example, if you have cancer that affects the genital tract, rectum, anus or urinary tract, your doctor may recommend that you abstain from sex during treatment.
You may also find that you're simply not feeling up to having sex during chemo—and that's OK. This could be due to side effects such as fatigue and pain, or because of decreased libido from the treatment's effects on your hormone levels. If you're not feeling up to sex, listen to your body. Consider alternative methods of intimacy and affection, such as kissing, cuddling or even just spending quality time with your partner.
Chemotherapy affects everyone differently, and you may find you're still driven to have sex. Talk to your doctor if you have any concerns about whether it's safe for you to have sex. Keep in mind that pregnancy is not safe during chemotherapy, so taking measures to have safer sex is essential.
Chemotherapy can affect your fertility. How it affects fertility differs depending on the reproductive organs that you have. For people with male reproductive organs, it's important to know that chemotherapy damages sperm; the sperm you have now and the sperm you produce in the future. For this reason, most doctors recommend banking sperm as soon as possible while getting treated for cancer, regardless of whether you're sure you want children or not, just to be safe.
Cervical cancer patients may need surgical treatments that cause infertility, while others may have the option to undergo fertility-sparing treatment. In general, there are certain chemotherapy drugs that have a higher chance of causing infertility, especially when administered for longer periods or at higher doses. If your doctor has recommended chemotherapy to treat your cancer, be sure to discuss any concerns you have about fertility before starting the treatment. If remaining fertile is a priority for you, there may be strategies your doctor can use to minimize your chances of infertility.
Chemotherapy can be effective at killing cancer cells, but its power can affect hormonal health, as it doesn't discriminate between the types of cells it attacks. This means chemotherapy can negatively affect hormone-producing glands, causing low testosterone (low-T) in some people. For the most part, the higher and more broadly applied your chemo dosage is, the higher the risk is for significant side effects like low-T, which can lower your energy, lead to muscle loss, cause erectile dysfunction (ED) and decrease your libido.
Using chemotherapy as treatment for testicular cancer can disrupt your hormonal health even more significantly, as treatment often requires the removal of one or both testes. Special considerations are usually taken in the dosage, frequency and duration of chemotherapy treatment.
Your chemotherapy journey will likely be difficult at times, so making sure you're equipped to cope with the challenges is important. A great place to start is to make sure you have an emotional support system you can lean on, whether it's made up of loved ones, a therapist, members of a support group, or other chemo patients or cancer survivors.
Ensure that you talk with your doctor so you can be fully prepared for what to expect from your chemo treatment and potential side effects. If side effects emerge, don't wait to tell your doctor, because there is likely a way to lessen their severity or eliminate them altogether.
Pain is a common side effect of chemo. However, it's important to remember that side effects can range in severity and chemo affects everyone differently. Some people experience none or only some of the potential side effects of chemo. If side effects emerge, talk to your doctor, as many symptoms can be treated and the pain reduced.
The success rate of chemotherapy depends on various factors, such as the type of cancer as well as the stage of cancer. More information about the latest statistics on cancer treatment and survivorship has been published by the American Cancer Society for 2019-2021.
Chemotherapy can be used to either completely rid the body of cancer or to simply reduce the number of cancer cells so symptoms can be lessened and life can be extended.
The latter scenario is referred to as palliative chemotherapy. It's often used to help someone with incurable cancer cope with symptoms and live longer. Research indicates palliative chemotherapy can typically extend life anywhere from three to 12 months, though these numbers can vary depending on the person and their situation.
