'We need a physician who is a human being too': exploration of barriers and facilitators for hospitalised palliative patients and their families to discuss advance care planning.

Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is not well implemented in hospital. Implementation theory stresses the importance of knowing what hospitalised palliative patients and their families experience as barriers or as facilitators in the uptake of ACP with their treating physician.

Aims: This study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of what hospitalised palliative patients and their families experienced as barriers or facilitators for having ACP conversations.

Erectile dysfunction and mining-related jobs: an explorative study in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Introduction: The African Copperbelt is a site of intense artisanal and industrial mining and refining of copper and cobalt. Anecdotal reports of erectile dysfunction (ED) among mineworkers in the area led us to conduct an explorative study to investigate the possible association between ED and working in mining-related jobs.

Methods: We included 42 consecutive men (18-40 years) buying sildenafil (the active substance of Viagra) from a pharmacy located in a popular neighbourhood in Lubumbashi, and 42 age-matched (±2 years) men buying painkillers.

Helping hospital professionals to implement Advance Care Planning in daily practice: a European Delphi study from field experts.

Background: Advance Care Planning (ACP) communication is difficult to implement in hospital. Possibly this has to do with the fact that the concept is not well tuned to the needs of hospital professionals or that they experience implementation barriers in practice.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate what is valued in having ACP conversations by hospital professionals (physicians, nurses, psychologists and social workers) and what they experience as barriers and facilitating factors for having ACP conversations with patients.

Living as a Cancer Survivor: A Qualitative Study on the Experiences of Belgian Adolescents and Young Adults (AYAs) after Childhood Cancer.

Purpose: Insight was sought in how a childhood cancer experience plays a role in daily life of adolescents and young adults (AYA) survivors.

Design And Methods: A qualitative research in which semi-structured interviews were held with 21 AYA survivors of childhood cancer between the ages of 14 and 25. The AYA survivors were recruited from two pediatric oncology departments of two university hospitals in Belgium.

Latin American Women´s Beliefs, Views and Ideas About Sexual Assertiveness: A Focus Group Study in Cuenca (Ecuador).

In an attempt to extend our understanding of how social contexts co-create female sexuality in Latin America, the aim of the current study was to explore the beliefs, views, and ideas about sexual assertiveness in Latino emerging adult women. Seventeen women between 22 and 30 years old living in Cuenca, Ecuador, participated in focus groups. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data.

"To Shave or Not to Shave": Pubic Hair Removal and Its Association with Relational and Sexual Satisfaction in Women and Men.

Background: Pubic hair removal (PHR) is a widespread practice that entails certain health risks; however, there remains a lack of scientific information on the prevalence and antecedents of PHR, as well as on its association with sexual behavior and relational satisfaction.

Aims: To explore women's and men's attitudes regarding PHR and their PHR practices and the associations with demographic, relational, and sexual characteristics.

Methods: A total of 2,687 men and 1,735 women living in Flanders (the Northern part of Belgium) completed an online survey.

Ambiguous Loss in Transnational Families' Adolescents: An Exploratory Study in Ecuador.

In psychosocial migration literature, the perspective of ambiguous loss has been relevant to articulate personal and relational experiences in the context of transnational families and ongoing separation. Most studies have focused on adult members' experiences of transnational families, but research exploring ambiguous loss in adolescents whose parents have migrated is still lacking. The present study aimed to explore adolescents' lived experiences of parental migration.

Altered gray matter volume in sensorimotor and thalamic regions associated with pain in localized provoked vulvodynia: a voxel-based morphometry study.

Multimodal neuroimaging studies provide support for a role of alterations in sensory processing circuits and endogenous pain modulatory systems in provoked vestibulodynia (PVD). In this study, we tested the hypotheses that PVD compared with healthy controls (HCs) would demonstrate gray matter volume (GMV) alterations in regions associated with sensorimotor, corticothalamic, and basal ganglia circuits. We also tested the replicability of previously reported gray matter increases in basal ganglia and hippocampal volumes in PVD vs HCs.

In Search of Desire: The Role of Intimacy, Celebrated Otherness, and Object-of-Desire Affirmation in Sexual Desire in Women.

While the interactive nature of sexual desire in women is increasingly recognized, dyadic factors affecting it, including partner interactions, have as yet received little research attention. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the associations among intimacy, celebrated otherness, and object-of-desire affirmation and explored how they complement each other in the prediction of sexual desire in women. Based on the reports of 662 participants, positive correlations were found among all factors.

Family Secrecy in Family Therapy Practice: An Explorative Focus Group Study.

The aim of this focus group study was to explore the experiences of family therapists working with family secrecy. Our study highlights that family secrets present important and compelling challenges for family therapists. Furthermore, our study reveals that there seem to be some basic strategies family therapists use in dealing with these challenges in therapy sessions.

Hysterectomy by transvaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery versus laparoscopy as a day-care procedure: a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To compare hysterectomy by transvaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (vNOTES) versus total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) as a day-care procedure.

Design: Parallel group, 1:1 randomised single-centre single-blinded trial, designed as a non-inferiority study with a margin of 15%.

Setting: Belgian teaching hospital.

The Mediating Role of Sexual Behavior in Event-Level Associations Between Sexual Difficulties and Sexual Satisfaction in Newlywed Mixed-Sex Couples.

Introduction: Many sexual difficulties encountered by couples in their day-to-day lives, although of insufficient intensity and persistence to warrant a clinical diagnosis of sexual disorder, are nevertheless frequent and a source of individual and relational distress.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the event-level associations between couples' everyday, subclinical sexual difficulties (specifically, low subjective sexual arousal, low physiological sexual arousal, and genito-pelvic pain), the range of sexual behaviors that these couples engage in, and their sexual satisfaction.

Methods: 70 Newlywed participants (35 couples, average age = 25.

"The child is our focus": On couple issues in child oncology treatment.

Objective: This study explored the perspectives of child oncology professionals and parents about the attention professionals should give to the parent couple relationship during treatment of the child.

Methods: We employed a qualitative research design, framed within the approach of consensual qualitative research (CQR), gathering data from four focus groups with 20 professionals and from nine in-depth interviews with 16 parents. Thematic analysis of the focus group and interview data was done with MaxQda software, using two coders and member checks to strengthen confidence in the analysis.

Who's Distressed by Sexual Difficulties? Exploring Associations Between Personal, Perceived Partner, and Relational Distress and Sexual Difficulties in Heterosexual Men and Women.

While not all sexual difficulties cause distress, research and clinical experience suggest that, apart from personal distress, partner and relational sexual distress are also often an important reason to seek professional help. The current study explored the associations between personal, perceived partner, and relational distress that men and women experience as a result of sexual difficulties. Data from heterosexual Flemish individuals ages 16 to 74 who were in a relationship (13,800 men and 13,242 women, mean age of 43.

What do hospitalists experience as barriers and helpful factors for having ACP conversations? A systematic qualitative evidence synthesis.

Background:: Hospitalists seem to struggle with advance care planning implementation. One strategy to help them is to understand which barriers and helpful factors they may encounter.

Aims:: This review aims to give an overview on what hospitalists experience as barriers and helpful factors for having advance care planning conversations.

Sexual Activity and Sexual Satisfaction Among Older Adults in Four European Countries.

The aim of this article was to describe partnered and non-partnered sexual activity and sexual satisfaction in older men and women from Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and Portugal, and to explore sociodemographic correlates of sexual activity and satisfaction. Data were collected in 2016 using postal, anonymous questionnaires in probability samples of the population aged 60-75 years recruited by phone registers in Norway (676 men, 594 women), Denmark (530 men, 515 women), Belgium (318 men, 672 women), and Portugal (236 men, 273 women). In men, the percentage of sexually active participants in the past year ranged from 83% in Portugal to 91% in Norway.

Addressing sexual issues in palliative care: A qualitative study on nurses' attitudes, roles and experiences.

Aim: To explore palliative care nurses' attitudes, roles and concrete experience with regard to addressing sexual issues in their daily practice.

Background: Patients and their partners in palliative care might experience dramatic changes in their sexuality and want nurses to provide the opportunity to address them. Moreover, it is argued that the holistic philosophy of palliative care encourages nurses working in this area to include sexual issues in their daily care.

Validation of the Sexual Inhibition and Sexual Excitation Scales (SIS/SES) in Portugal: Assessing Gender Differences and Predictors of Sexual Functioning.

The Sexual Inhibition and Sexual Excitation Scales (SIS/SES) were developed to assess individual propensities for sexual excitation and sexual inhibition in men and women. The objective of the present study was to validate the Portuguese version of the SIS/SES and to investigate the degree to which SIS/SES scores predict different dimensions of Portuguese men's and women's sexual functioning. Gender differences were also examined.

Transvaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (vNOTES) adnexectomy for benign pathology compared with laparoscopic excision (NOTABLE): a protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) uses natural orifices to access the cavities of the human body to perform surgical interventions. NOTES limits the magnitude of surgical trauma and potentially reduces postoperative pain. Our group published a protocol on a randomised study comparing transvaginal NOTES (vNOTES) versus laparoscopy for hysterectomy (HALON).

Child Sexual Abuse and Negative Affect as Shared Risk Factors for Sexual Aggression and Sexual HIV Risk Behavior in Heterosexual Men.

Previous research has suggested that sexually aggressive behavior and sexual HIV risk behavior are associated. Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a well-established risk factor for both types of problematic sexual behavior. Negative affect (i.

Brain responses to vestibular pain and its anticipation in women with Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder.

Objective: In DSM-5, pain-related fear during anticipation of vaginal penetration is a diagnostic criterion of Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder (GPPPD). We aimed to investigate subjective and brain responses during anticipatory fear and subsequent induction of vestibular pain in women with GPPPD.

Methods: Women with GPPPD (n = 18) and age-matched healthy controls (HC) (n = 15) underwent fMRI scanning during vestibular pain induction at individually titrated pain threshold after a cued anticipation period.