Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Sexual Health After Cancer Program Helps Women Heal Without the Taboo
Summary
- Many female cancer survivors struggle with sexual intimacy after treatment.
- Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center’s M.U.S.I.C. program works with cancer survivors to identify and solve issues that impact sexual health.
- Program director Dr. Kristin Rojas says sexual intimacy is not a luxury for cancer survivors. It’s part of healing.
When Karen, an acute myeloid leukemia survivor, first met Kristin Rojas, M.D., an oncology researcher at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth—University of Miami Health System, she nearly cried from relief.
Throughout her cancer treatment and recovery from the bone marrow transplant that saved her life, Karen had been asking her doctors for help with intimacy. The treatment had left her barely able to feel her breasts and she had frequent pain and dryness around her vagina. She asked how she’d ever be able to have intercourse with her husband again. The doctors told her to wait and not to worry about it.
“They were concentrated on the cancer,” she said, but for Karen, ensuring she’d be able to enjoy sex with her husband in the future was important. “It was my way of coping with cancer, in a way.”
Finally, her doctor gave her a referral to the Menopause Urogenital Sexual Health and Intimacy Clinic (M.U.S.I.C.) clinic run by Dr. Rojas, also an associate professor in the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. After a combination of coconut oil, hormonal treatment and physical therapy, she was able to resume sexual activity comfortably.
“Sexual health is not a luxury after cancer. It’s a vital part of healing,” said Dr. Rojas. “When we include intimacy and quality-of-life concerns in the overall treatment plan, we help survivors feel whole again, not just cancer-free.”
“A Perfect Specialty”
The M.U.S.I.C. program opened its doors in 2020. Since then, it has grown to include two nurse practitioners, whom Karen said were crucial to her care. When she had an infection, it was nurse practitioner Grace Sierra who responded right away and started her treatment.
“I thought it was a perfect specialty, helping women navigate this new season in their lives,” said Natalie Paez, APRN, FNP-BC, a nurse practitioner who joined M.U.S.I.C. in 2022. At first, she said, they were working almost exclusively with breast cancer patients, but “now we’re seeing all types of patients who are diagnosed with cancer.”
A patient’s first appointment with the program’s providers often lasts about an hour, during which the providers will review a patient’s cancer history and current symptoms. They’ll ask about any products a patient regularly uses in the pelvic area that could be irritating. Then, with consent, they’ll conduct a pelvic exam.
“The pelvic exam tells us a lot about the area that a patient is having trouble with,” said Paez. “We’ll assess elasticity, moisture, vaginal pH to evaluate symptoms such as dryness or atrophy, especially in patients affected by menopause or cancer treatment-related changes.”
Dr. Rojas and her team are exploring emerging therapies such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, which involve concentrating a patient’s own blood plasma and injecting it into the vaginal tissue to improve elasticity and collagen formation, potentially.
“Early studies have shown promising results,” said Paez. “Our goal is to continue evaluating such treatments while prioritizing evidence-based and safe interventions.”
The Path to Sexual Health
For Karen, coconut oil was a simple key. Treatment for her leukemia included a bone marrow transplant, which may have made her allergic to a common ingredient in the moisturizers and creams she had been using in hopes of healing her vaginal and breast tissue.
“For months, I was using creams that were just making it worse,” she said. “The coconut oil was a game changer.”
“The marketplace is flooded with unregulated devices and costly procedures marketed to cancer survivors. We focus on proven, science-driven treatments that restore vaginal and sexual health safely, without the risks of untested options,” said Dr. Rojas.
Karen also received hormone treatment and physical therapy to help rebuild the muscles in her vagina and rectum to prepare them for intercourse. In particular, Karen appreciated how Dr. Rojas explained her condition.
“She presented this in a very clinical way,” Karen said, which made her comfortable discussing the taboo topic of sexual health and physical therapy.
The program changed Karen’s life, she said, adding that she wishes more cancer patients and survivors knew about M.U.S.I.C.
Tags: Cancer Support Services, Dr. Kristin Rojas, sexual health, Sylverster Comprehensive Cancer Center, women's sexual health