Anxiety and body satisfaction before and six months after mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery

As breast reconstruction is an important adjunct after mastectomy to regain physical integrity and also to improve affect, the present aim was to evaluate patients’ subjective perceptions of body image during the whole breast reconstruction period and to assess the importance of their psychological reaction in terms of negative affectivity. Participants were 62 women, 43 women (mean age: 46.41; s.d.: 9.8) who had had mastectomies and 19 healthy women (mean age: 39.89; s.d.: 13.99). Women with cancer pathology were patients admitted to the Unit of Plastic Surgery of the Hospital S.Orsola in Bologna. Healthy subjects were relatives of the women and students, all with no history of breast pathology. The Body Satisfaction Scale and the State-Anxiety Inventory-Y were administered to the clinical group and to the control group before, post and 6 mo. after surgery. Analysis of scores indicated that during the period of the study, the women with mastectomies reported higher level of anxiety and also greater dissatisfaction with their body image compared to the healthy group, even when the breast had been reconstructed. This unexpected finding suggests patients’ unrealistic expectations of the breast reconstruction and the real surgical outcome.