Stacy T Lindau, El A Pinkerton, Emily M Abramsohn, Charles M Fuller, Danielle Grubb, Tania Mendoza, Amy K Siston
BACKGROUND: Every year, more than 90,000 U.S. women undergo mastectomy. More than 40% have reconstruction. Following reconstruction, most women experience persistent partial or complete numbness of the reconstructed breasts, and many experience pain. Yet, breast reconstruction procedures focus largely on esthetic outcomes with mixed impact on sensory outcomes and little attention to pain. This study examines whether and how breast sensation is important to women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Conventional content analysis of extant qualitative data from a clinical registry (29 women with prior breast surgery for cancer, 2008-2022), a volunteer community sample (qualitative interviews with 6 women with and 5 without breast cancer, 2019), and from a Twitter social media survey ( N = 32, 2022)...
2023: Women's health reports