Experiences of Male Partners Supporting Adolescents and Young Adults with Breast Cancer During Initial Treatment Following Diagnosis

Abstract

　This study aims to identify the experiences of male partners supporting adolescents and young adults （AYA） with breast cancer during the initial treatment following diagnosis. Semistructured interviews were conducted with three partners of patients with breast cancer in the AYA generation who had been diagnosed approximately 5 years ago and had undergone surgery and chemotherapy during their initial treatment. The interviews were analyzed qualitatively and inductively.

　The analysis identified six main categories of experiences in supporting patients. The partners “faced the fear of losing their wives” while “striving to minimize their burden and ensure the completion of the initial treatment.” Simultaneously, they “supported the family, which had changed due to their wives’ breast cancer.” While shouldering multiple roles and being in a situation where “they could not handle everything alone,” they overcame the situation by “drawing strength from people around them,” and they “constructed a new form of family and lived with a readiness for potential recurrence.” Three key characteristics emerged from their experiences: the challenge of managing multiple roles while protecting the patient, the importance of acknowledging the patient’s own feelings as an AYA generation woman, and the recognition that they could not support the patient without support from others. These findings suggest that, in nursing practice, it is important to anticipate the processes involved in the experiences identified in this study, provide information as resources to alleviate the partners’ burden of performing multiple roles, share the experiences of partners in the same generation, and offer support to help them express their vulnerabilities.