We-ness : couple identity as shared by male partners of breast cancer patients

The present study explored the wider relational context of partners of women facing cancer. Seven male partners of breast cancer patients shared their experience of being a partner to a woman going through cancer. Dialogal phenomenology allowed for clarification of the landscape of these partners' experience by providing opportunity to formulate their experience and to unfold meanings attributed to this experience. Seven themes were identified: crisis and aftermath; children, parenting, and fertility; personal impact; breast cancer as a shared experience; honouring voices and voice; relational choreography; and relational outlook. These men shared different ways that being a partner of a woman with cancer is a shared experience. One pattern that emerged describes how a "you and me" couple identity framework can shift into a "we" perspective. These results revealed how couple identity emerged in relational patterns of engagement during conversational interviewing, a distinctive feature that fits well with previous findings.