Elements to base the understanding of the sexuality of partners of subjects with a definitive colostomy

Abstract

The general purpose of the present investigation was to describe the sexual interactions involving colostomized individuals, aiming at understanding this experience. The authors aimed also at identifying the mode regarding sexual procedures used by colostomized individuals and the possible effects of colostomy on these procedures. Therefore, a semi-structured interview, recorded or not, was applied to partners of colostomized subjects. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed according to the content analysis technique. Authors divided the results in 39 subcategories with 4.361 speech units that were gathered in three main categories. The category I "Precedence of the crisis" included 4 subcategories with 113 (36.67%) speech units. The category II "Crisis" comprised 17 subcategories with 1599 (36.67%) speech units and Category III "Crisis' Results" comprehended 18 subcategories with 2649 (60.74%) speech units. Data were validated by an expert on content analysis and the conclusion was that the main concern of health professionals is to keep subjects with a definitive colostomy alive, providing orientations focussing on the stoma, its care and gastrointestinal function. The speech of partners showed a clear presence of post-crisis results, representing a great danger to their general and sexual integrity and to their general and sexual adaptation on a short, medium and long-term basis.