The importance to patients of body image

Question 1

What is the definition of a body?

Answer 1

• Physical selves

- Impact of environmental, cultural, social, and political influences on the body

Question 2

Describe the relationship between body image and self-esteem (men vs women)

Answer 2

Men:

• Language of power/owning/neutral
• Function
• Action

Women:

• Language of control/negative
• Body as object
• Appearance
• Social currency

Question 3

How does body image influence behaviour?

Answer 3

• Perception of self, investment in physical attributes
• Impact on socialisation
• Normal routine
• Occupational functioning
• Social functioning
• Relationship quality

Question 4

What is the importance of hair?

Answer 4

• Site for individual and group identity
• A way of doing gender - a symbol for women? Hair loss not so bad for men
• Stigma - being stigmatised
• Patient control of their status as sick

Question 5

Physical, psychological and social impacts of breast cancer

Answer 5

Physical impacts:

• Loss of breast
• Scarring
• Hair loss
• Skin changes
• Weight gain
• Menopausal changes
• Asymmetry in appearance
• Difficulty with clothing / bra

Psychological impacts:

• Loss of confidence / self-conscious
• Anxiety
• Grief
• Feeling incomplete
• Changes in sexual identity
• Changes in self-identity
• Reminder of diagnosis

Social impacts:

• Changes in roles - family, partner, friends
• Changes in sexual functioning
• Changes in existing intimate relationships
• Challenges in forming new relationships
• Paid employment
• Communal dressing rooms
• Social isolation