Câncer de mama: imagem corporal e envelhecimento feminino

• Ano de defesa: 2006
• Autor(a) principal: Uez, Maria Elisa
• Orientador(a): Frasson, Antonio
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; Porto Alegre
• Palavras-chave em Português: MEDICINA; NEOPLASIAS DA MAMA; IMAGEM CORPORAL; ENVELHECIMENTO; PSICOLOGIA DA MULHER
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10923/3684

The objective of the present research was to analyze the problematic one lived in relation on the body image of elderly women who were submitted to radical modified mastectomy without reconstruction, as surgical treatment for breast cancer. Qualitative, transversal and descriptive studies were carried out, with 11 women of equal age or over 60 years, taken place in the period of October 2005 to May 2006, at the Breast Ward of São Lucas Hospital of Pontificia Universidade Católica of Rio Grande Do Sul, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The data was acquired through semi-structuralized interviews, with socio-demographic data and three decisive questions: (1) how was the treatment of breast cancer discovered? (2) how do you perceive and feel your body after the surgery, in regards to how you perceived and felt it before the surgery? (3) how do you evaluate your aging? The results point to 4 categories these are: (1) the Discovery of Breast Cancer; (2) Interaction with the Medical and Public Health Services in the Treatment; (3) Breast Loss (Subcategories: Looking at and Feeling the Body, the Desired Body and Other People Looking at My Body) and (4) Perceptions of Aging. The discovery of the illness became a mark for the construction of a new feminine identity and life story for the elderly. Lack of information and fear in regards to the illness, postpone the search for diagnosis and adequate treatment. In relation to the corporal image after the loss of the breast, the elderly presented feelings of inferiority, of abandonment and difficulties in dealing with situations that involve exposing their bodies. Aging was perceived as something natural of life, but a generator of limitations and illnesses.It’s concluded that the loss of the breast produces alterations abrupt to the corporal image of elderly women who underwent radical modified mastectomy without reconstruction.