The overall aim is to investigate, from a communicative and interactive perspective, how physicians use the medical care program in dialogues with patients, and how patients use the program when they talk about their treatment and the disease, testicular cancer. Data consist of 23 patient-physician consultations and 23 interviews. The analysis was performed in stages. The results show that the physicians use the medical care program as an instrument in the dialogues and a structure for information when a patient is about to embark on a round of continued treatment after his operation. When the physician presents the course of treatment to the patient, he gives SWENOTECA as the reason for the choice. During the follow-up consultations, SWENOTECA is used as a basic framework for what should be checked from a medical point of view and as a structure to ensure that the checkups are performed. The medical care program seems to exert a strong influence on the men’s accounts during the interviews in terms of the medical terminology they use and as a structure for the course of the disease and for giving them a perspective of the future as well as hope.

Testicular cancer affects men between 15 and 45 years old. The aim of this study was to show how men with testicular cancer discover their cancer, react to physical changes, and take action. In the follow-vp phase, 21 who had undergone surgery for testicular cancer were interviewed. The results show clearly that the men focus on their physical pain. The progress from the discovery of changes in the testicular glands to medical care can be divided into three phases. In the first phase, "something has happened," the men consider the changes and try to define the reasons. In the second phase, "facing the situation," they consider the situation and decide whether to talk to someone. In the third phase, "seeking medical help," it is a question of seeking help and being confronted by the medical diagnosis. In terms of time, the progression in the current study took from 1 day to 1 year. The men sought help when complications arose that made normal daily functions difficult. Six of the men suspected that the cause of their problems was cancer. Almost half of the participants in this study, including the six who suspected cancer, did not talk to anyone before they decided to seek medical help. The men who did talk to Other people did not seek medical help any more quickly than the other men. None of the men routinely inspected their bodies.

The empirical data of this study were gathered in the form of audio-taped recordings of dialogues between 21 patients, who had had operations for testicular cancer and three physicians during follow-up consultations. The aim is to inquire into how routine practices affect the goals of checking up the medical conditions and providing patients with reassurance, and how practices affect the treatment of sensitive topics and the patients’ possibilities of bringing up their own problems are affected. The results show that the routines built up by the medical care programme are used as recurrent opportunities for the parties to confirm that the situation is under control and as resources when they talk about the sensitive topics of sexuality and fertility. How the routinization affected the patients’ possibilities of bringing up their own problems cannot be fully determined. Of the 50 initiatives by patients to present their problems, only nine did so solely on their own initiative.

The aim of this study was to describe, by means of explorative interviews, the experiences of relatives of male family members suffering from testicular cancer. The central questions concerned how the disease and its treatment affected the life of the family, how its daily routines were affected, the form of relationships and closeness during the period of the disease, and how the future was given shape. The results revealed four main themes presented by the relatives during the interviews: the disease and its course, normalization, the long-term consequences of the disease, and the social network. The results showed that relatives of men suffering from cancer live in a vulnerable situation characterized by social isolation.