José Antonio Lejárcegui, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Barcelona and full member of the Royal European Academy of Doctors (READ), and Camil Andreu Castelo-Branco, Director of the Department of Surgery and Medical-Surgical Specialties at the University of Barcelona and supernumerary member of the READ, have contributed to the recently published book «Current Topics in Climacteric, Menopause, and Women’s Health,» edited by the Guayas Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Ecuadorian Federation of Societies of Gynecology and Obstetrics, with the article «Oncosexology: Sexual Health and Cancer.»
Dr José Antonio Lejárcegui
Both experts took part between October 22 and 25 in the 25th Ecuadorian Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics, held in Guayaquil.
The work highlights the crucial need to integrate sexual health into comprehensive cancer care, exploring the various ways in which cancer and its therapeutic treatment can affect sexual function, desire, and body image. The experts advocate a multidisciplinary approach to managing these situations, emphasizing that healthcare professionals—from oncologists and nursing staff to psychologists and sexologists—must work together to provide comprehensive care and maintain open and fluid communication with patients. The article emphasizes that medical professionals should proactively initiate these conversations rather than waiting for patients to raise them, in order to better support patients and their partners. By doing so, clinicians can help them understand that sexual problems are a common and treatable side effect, thereby reducing stigma and providing effective coping strategies.
Dr Camil Andreu Castelo-Branco
Lejárcegui has published more than one hundred articles in renowned international and national journals, as well as chapters in specialized books. His scientific and medical work has earned him the Professional Excellence Award from the Medical Association of Catalonia and the Mediterranean Excellence Award. He is an honorary member of the Spanish Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, where he chairs the Section of Gynecologic Oncology.
He is also a member of various international medical societies. His main lines of research include the pathophysiology of the cervix, the pathophysiology of the endometrium, vulvar pathology, trophoblastic disease, intra-arterial chemotherapy infusion, tumor markers, and conservative surgery and irradiation in breast cancer.
Castelo-Branco, for his part, is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Barcelona and in 1988 founded the first menopause unit in a public hospital in Catalonia, the second in Spain. A pioneer in surgical techniques for the reconstruction of Müllerian anomalies, he is one of the driving forces behind minimally invasive gynecological surgery in Spain. Director of the Master’s Degree in Clinical Sexology since 2016, he also created a postgraduate program in Sexology and Sexual Education for non-physicians in the same year. He is the author of around five hundred original articles in his field and a co-author or contributor to more than two hundred monographs related to the specialty, as well as a regular speaker at national and international scientific conferences and meetings.
