Partner communication about hysterectomy

Communication between marital partners about a woman's hysterectomy may be difficult and serve as a source of marital conflict. This study was conducted to determine marital partners' usual communication behaviors as well as what they communicated about hysterectomy with each other. Twenty-two educated Caucasian couples participated in the study. Individual, semistructured interviews were conducted with the women in the hospital following their hysterectomies and with their partners at a later time. Couples also completed the Primary Communication Inventory. Results showed that the couples had generally good usual communication. Couples reported that they communicated "everything" about the hysterectomy, but evidence (i.e., further questioning) showed that they communicated little. The authors discuss possible explanations for this apparent contradiction between perceived and actual communication behaviors.