The patient with a physical ailment is a whole person with feelings about that disability or disease. Feeling less of a woman or man because of the development of illness may profoundly affect sexual responsiveness and desire. A woman who has had an operation which she regards as mutilating (removal of a breast, or an abdominal scar) may be fairly easy to identify; one whose feeling of damage is concealed (for example, after a cone biopsy or removal of an ovarian cyst) may be more difficult. Patients after any illness or surgery may grieve for their previous good health or completeness and find sexual responsiveness inhibited.

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