Worries about sex can be daunting after a cardiac patient receives an implanted heartdefibrillator. But, a patient's lover likely is more worried than the patient, a new study found.

Intimate partners are often concerned that the patient will suffer cardiac arrest during sex. Some even worry that they'll receive an electric shock if their partner's defibrillator goes off during sex, according to research presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.

The good news is that these worries taper off in the weeks following implant surgery, and three months out neither partner is typically worried about having sex, said study senior researcher Cynthia Dougherty, a professor of nursing at the University of Washington in Seattle.

And for most people with an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD), it's safe to resume sexual activity once the surgical site has healed, the study authors said.

"The defibrillator is a brand-new thing for both people, and I think that sometimes we forget that getting an ICD affects a partner significantly as well," Dougherty said.

An ICD is a small device that's placed in the chest or abdomen. It delivers an electric shock to the heart to correct life-threatening irregular heart rhythm. It helps prevent sudden cardiac arrest, a condition where the heart unexpectedly stops beating.

In this new study, 105 sexually active couples answered a series of eight questions regarding their concerns about sex following the ICD implant procedure. The couples (with an average age of 65 for patients and 63 for partners) filled the questionnaire out twice -- once when the patient left the hospital and again three months later.

About 20 percent of partners said they were worried that they would receive an electric shock from the patient if the ICD went off during sex. By comparison, only 16.5 percent of patients who'd gotten the ICD worried about getting a shock during sex.

The fear on the part of the partner without the ICD is that "if their [partner's] heart rate goes too high, they're going to get a shock," Dougherty said.
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