Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA 01610, USA.
Department of Psychology, Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA.
J Aging Stud. 2022 Jun;61:101010. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2022.101010. Epub 2022 Feb 22.
Men's experiences with gendered cancers hinge on at least two axes - their masculinities and their age. This article offers a thematic synthesis of the qualitative research on men living with breast cancer or prostate cancer. This is a qualitative meta-analysis assessing how masculinities and aging may jointly affect men's narratives post-mastectomy or post-prostatectomy. Of particular interest was whether and how aging mediates the experience of these gendered cancers. Reviewed were all qualitative studies published between 2000 and 2020 addressing men's breast cancer and post-mastectomy experiences (N = 15) and men's lives after their prostatectomy (N = 28). The analysis followed the guidelines for thematic synthesis and grounded theory. Free codes of findings were organized into "descriptive" themes, which are then further interpreted to yield "analytical" themes. Seven descriptive themes were identified and these underlie two analytical themes - body talk and resilience. Collectively, men's illness narratives spoke about how cancer challenges their gendered identities and practices, and how they repair identities. The common experience was one of men coming to live with their post-surgical bodies by practicing 'wider,' hybrid forms of masculinities. The principal finding is that men with either type of cancer saw themselves as men and remained seen by others in terms of their gender, not their anatomically changed bodies. Unresolved was the full way aging complemented and mediated the cancer journey.
男性在罹患性别相关癌症时的体验至少取决于两个方面——他们的男性气质和年龄。本文对患有乳腺癌或前列腺癌的男性的定性研究进行了主题综合分析。这是一项定性荟萃分析，评估了男性气质和衰老如何共同影响男性在乳房切除术后或前列腺切除术后的叙述。特别关注的是衰老是否以及如何影响这些性别相关癌症的体验。审查了 2000 年至 2020 年间发表的所有关于男性乳腺癌和乳房切除术后体验的定性研究（N=15）以及男性前列腺切除术后生活的研究（N=28）。分析遵循主题综合和扎根理论的准则。发现的自由编码被组织成“描述性”主题，然后进一步解释以产生“分析性”主题。确定了七个描述性主题，这些主题是两个分析性主题的基础——身体话语和韧性。总的来说，男性的疾病叙述讲述了癌症如何挑战他们的性别认同和实践，以及他们如何修复身份。共同的经历是男性通过实践更广泛、混合形式的男性气质来接受他们手术后的身体。主要发现是，无论哪种类型的癌症，男性都认为自己是男性，并且从性别角度来看，他们的身体没有改变，其他人也这样看待他们。衰老如何补充和调解癌症旅程的问题仍未得到解决。
