Living With Ovarian Cancer: Transitions Lost in Translation

Abstract

Background: Living with ovarian cancer involves uncertainty, fear of recurrence, and premature death while preparing for a life after treatment. The women depend on health care professionals while moving from being healthy to experiencing ovarian cancer.

Objective: To explore experiences of women living with ovarian cancer and their interactions with health care professionals.

Methods: Five focus group interviews were conducted with the same 4 women, between 2018 and 2020. The interviews were analyzed using systematic text condensation.

Results: Living with ovarian cancer involved a set of transitions from health to illness and disease. These transitions were difficult for the women to articulate to health care professionals, friends and family, and to themselves. All participants expressed the experiencing of existential and emotional chaos and paradoxes. As their illness developed, it impacted their ability to articulate changes to their body and sense of self and to their own identity negatively. Consequently, the women felt that their ability to communicate their needs to others, including to health care professionals, deteriorated as the disease progressed.

Conclusions: Women living with ovarian cancer experience transitions lost in translation within themselves and in communication with persons in their personal, familial, and medical realms.

Implications for Practice: A better understanding of their existential suffering and how it is easily lost in translation may refine care and support for these women throughout their illness and disease trajectory.