Participants were recruited through register files from a
general surgical clinic at a Swedish university hospital.
Inclusion criteria were patients who had undergone CRC
surgery one year previously and had lived with the same
partner during the past year. Exclusion criteria were persons
with difficulties understanding and speaking Swedish. A total
of 24 patients (14 with rectal cancer and 10 with colon cancer)
matched the inclusion criteria and thus were contacted by
letter and were invited to participate together with their
partners. Two weeks later, the first author telephoned for
permission to perform the interview. Eleven couples declined
to participate and thirteen agreed. The reasons given for
declining were severe illness, wanting to forget the illness or
were not revealed. Of the 13 patients included, five were
treated for rectal cancer and eight for colon cancer. Six
had received a stoma. The patients’ ages varied between
39–86 years (median 69) and the partners’ between 40–87
years (median 64). The patients were seven men and six
women, and all were married and living in a heterosexual