Cancer diagnosis and treatment has significant implications for immediate and longer term mental health and adjustment. Cancer in women raises specific issues relating to female identity and body image, pregnancy, motherhood and parenting and relationships and require a gender-specific framework for intervention approaches.
Clinicians dealing with the complex issues of the management of cancer in groups such as young women and pregnant women are those considering the implications for fertility and parenting capacity have a vital role in responding to questions around challenges to identity and adaptation to longer treatment program and the experience of survivorship.
A gender-specific framework allows development of support and psychological intervention programs specifically targeting these issues of identity and interpersonal functioning in women with a cancer diagnosis. Included in this is the need to better support women in early parenting and maintain their role as an attachment figure and competent parent which in itself will have positive benefits for mental health.