Transition of elderly men with prostate cancer: analysis of facilitating and difficulty conditions

Objective: to understand the transition experience of elderly men with prostate cancer. Method: descriptive study with a qualitative approach carried out in four services of the health care network in a city in Bahia, Brazil. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eighty elderly men, which were organized and analyzed based on the Collective Subject Discourse Technique and interpreted in light of the Theory of Transitions. Results: the influence of family members, friends, other men, nurses and other professionals are facilitators; and complicating factors are the scarcity of knowledge and financial resources of the individual, geographic barriers, limitations related to the structure and bureaucracy of services. Final considerations: when constructing meanings for prostate cancer and admitting vulnerability, men confront their beliefs, reach the awareness that allows them to overcome limitations and assume the leading role of self-care in the health/disease transition.