What do pediatric surgeons think about sexual issues in dealing with patients with anorectal malformations? The ARM-Net consortium members’ opinion
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In brief
In brief
Survey of European pediatric surgeons reveals that while 82% believe discussing sexual issues with ARM patients is important, over half lack confidence in these conversations. Most surgeons desire formal training and advocate for multidisciplinary team management of sexual health concerns in ARM patients transitioning to adulthood.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Abstract
Purpose
Since pediatric surgeons aim to follow their patients with anorectal malformations (ARM) into adulthood the aim of this study was to investigate how pediatric surgeons deal with sexual issues related to ARM.
Methods
In 2018, a questionnaire was developed by the working group “Follow-up and sexuality” of the ARM-Net consortium and sent to all consortium-linked pediatric surgeons from 31 European pediatric surgical centers. Obtained data were statistically analyzed.
Results
Twenty-eight of 37 pediatric surgeons (18 males/10 females) answered the questionnaire. The majority of pediatric surgeons (82%) think they should talk about sexual issues with their patient. More than 50% of pediatric surgeons do not feel at all or only moderately confident discussing the topic of sexuality. Most pediatric surgeons require more support (96%) and wish to be trained in sexuality and sexual issues (78%) to feel confident towards their ARM-patients/parents. For optimal care, sexual issues with ARM-patients should be managed by a multidisciplinary team.
Conclusions
Pediatric surgeons feel that sexuality is an important issue for their ARM-patients, which they are primarily responsible of but should be managed in concert with a multidisciplinary team. A training in sexuality is wished to feel more confident about this specific issue.