Having severe asthma compromises sexual intimacy and strains relationships, UK research shows, yet healthcare professionals are not addressing this sensitive topic.
In a qualitative study analysing interviews with nine severe asthma patients, researchers found the condition affected people’s physical ability to have intercourse and restricted other everyday aspects of intimacy, with breathlessness even making kissing difficult.
Extreme fatigue from living with severe asthma restricted opportunities for intimacy, participants reported.
Even when patients had intercourse many worried orgasm would bring on severe bronchospasm requiring medical attention and an embarrassing conversation with an attending paramedic.
They also needed to navigate having medical equipment such as syringe drivers on hand while being intimate.
“We sort of have to think ‘where’s my nebuliser’ before I get romantic, is everything on standby?,” one participant said.
Lead author Leanne Jo Holmes, a lead clinical nurse specialist at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said even after more than a decade working with severe asthma patients she was “humbled” to hear how the condition impacted lives.
In addition to placing physical limitations on intimacy, the research highlighted how severe asthma was linked to poor self-image.
“The long-standing impacts of oral corticosteroids can cause really negative aspects of body image and self-esteem which then has a knock-on impact on the relationship,” Ms Holmes told the limbic.