Hello, my name is Lindsey Rosman and I am a Clinical Health Psychology doctoral student at East Carolina University. I am currently conducting research on body image concerns and long-term sexual adjustment in women diagnosed and treated for early-stage breast cancer. Through this research, I hope to learn about women’s sexual experiences in the context of cancer survivorship and identify factors that potentially affect women’s post-treatment sexual functioning.

If you are a woman 18 years of age or older, currently in a relationship, who has been diagnosed with Stage I, II, or IIIa breast cancer (diagnosis had never exceeded Stage IIIa) and has completed treatment, and who currently resides in the United States, you are eligible to participate in our confidential survey that is available on-line. Completing this survey should take half an hour or less.

To thank you for your participation, you will be provided with an area where you can enter your contact information if you would like to be included in a drawing for 1 of 15 $25 Walmart gift cards. Following the completion of the study, the fifteen winners of the draw will be notified, and a $25 gift card will be mailed to them at their stated residence.

If you would like to know more information about this study or would like to participate in the survey, please click on the link provided here: http://www.ecu.edu/survey/BCbodyimage

Add us to facebook! http://www.facebook.com/bodyimageandsexfunctioninBCS?sk=info

Thank you for your interest and help!

If you have any questions, please contact me at stresscopelab@ecu.edu or the faculty supervisor for this research, Dr. Heather Littleton, at LittletonH@ecu.edu.

Sincerely,
Lindsey Rosman, B.A.
Doctoral student
Department of Psychology
East Carolina University

Hi everyone,

I wanted to thank all of the amazing women who have completed the online survey so far.  I also wanted to thank many of you who shared the survey link on our facebook page with friends, family, co-workers, and members of your breast cancer support groups.  We've had a tremendous response so far and have had over 200 women complete the confidential online survey.  As a result, we set a date of June 1st to end data collection for this study.  So if you or someone you know would be interested in participating in a 15-20 minute confidential online survey about body image concerns and sexual problems after diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer please check it out before June 1st!

If you would like to know more information about this study or would like to participate in the survey, please click on the link provided here: http://www.ecu.edu/survey/BCbodyimage

Visit our study page on facebook! We currently have 695 breast cancer survivors in our facebook group and several conversations going on right now about body image concerns and sexual problems after cancer.  http://www.facebook.com/bodyimageandsexfunctioninBCS?sk=info

Thank you for your interest and help!

If you have any questions, please contact me at stresscopelab@ecu.edu or the faculty supervisor for this research, Dr. Heather Littleton, at LittletonH@ecu.edu.

Sincerely,
Lindsey Rosman, B.A.
Doctoral student
Department of Psychology
East Carolina University

To survivors, their friends, family, and medical professionals who have been following the research study, Body Image and Sexual Functioning in Breast Cancer Survivors:

Let me start off by saying thank you so much for your interest and support for this research! Over the past few months, we had nearly 300 breast cancer survivors nationwide participate in the study and have concluded data collection for this study. Therefore the link to the confidential online survey is now closed.

We have already started to analyze the data and plan to work on this over the next few weeks. Once completed, I will write up the research findings and present the study findings to my committee. After that, I will spend several weeks writing up the study results and submitting it for publication.

Throughout this process I will be posting messages on the study facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/bodyimageandsexfunctioninBCS?sk=info, to keep everyone up to date on our progress. Our facebook page will also include a summary of the research findings, provide links to any publications produced with this data and discuss our plans going forward to develop an effective intervention to treat body image concerns and sexual problems in breast cancer survivors. I think it’s incredibly important to let women know that their time and participation in the study led to new information that will be used to inform healthcare professionals about sexual problems and body image concerns in breast cancer survivors as well as facilitate the development of new and effective treatment interventions to improve the quality of life for women and their loved ones.

I also wanted to mention that we will be randomly drawing the names of 15 women who provided their information to be entered into a drawing for 1 of 15 $25 Walmart gift cards. The fifteen winners of the draw will be notified, and a $25 gift card will be mailed to them at their stated residence.

Finally, I wanted to say thank you to the many support groups, breast cancer websites, bloggers, cancer centers and medical professionals who took time out of their busy day to share information about the study with interested participants. We couldn’t have done this without you.

If you have any additional questions or feedback about the study, please don't hesitate to contact me at any time at stresscopelab@ecu.edu. Again, I cannot thank you enough for your enthusiasm and support!

Best wishes,

Lindsey Rosman, B.A.
Doctoral student
Department of Psychology
East Carolina University