(SKY news) People who develop cervical or testicular cancer are more likely to get divorced, a new study says.
Cancerous cellsNorwegian experts have told the European Cancer Organisation that women with cervical cancer had a 40% higher chance of getting divorced than other women.
Men with testicular cancer were 20% more likely to get divorced than similar men without cancer.
Both types of cancer are curable and mainly affect young people.
"Sex could have something to do with this," said Lesley Fallowfield , a professor of psycho-oncology at Sussex University, who was not connected to the study.
"If men and women with cervical or testicular cancer aren't having sex with their partners, that may be a problem."
For nearly two decades, the study looked at 2.8 million people in Norway, comparing the divorce rates of 215,000 cancer survivors to those in couples with no cancer.
They did not ask couples about the reasons for the divorces, but only looked at marriage and divorce registration data.
"It seems to be worse for your marriage to get cancer early," said Astri Syse , an epidemiologist at the Norwegian Cancer Registry who led the study.
But Syse said that it was only cervical and testicular cancer that produced a spike in divorces.
Other types of cancer did not result in more divorces.