“My husband is 61 years old. He is starting to have erection problems. He smokes a lot. I wish he would quit, can that affect his sexuality?”, questions Magali, 55 years old. The response of Catherine Solano, sexologist and andrologist (Cochin hospital, Paris).
Reading you, we understand why married men live longer: their wives care about their health!
Tobacco and erection: what you need to know
Tobacco has at least two harmful consequences for erection.
– The best known is a long-term effect, due to the tars contained in smoke. Smoking gradually makes the arteries less elastic. As a result, at the time of sexual intercourse, they end up not being able to dilate enough to let a volume of blood through that triggers an erection. In addition, smoking narrows the inner diameter of these arteries, which tend to become blocked over time with deposits. It also prevents enough blood from reaching the penis for a good quality erection.
– A less well-known effect of tobacco is its immediate effect. When a man smokes a single cigarette, for the next 5 hours, erection is estimated to be 20% worse. This effect is due to carbon monoxide, a gas found in cigarette smoke that causes the muscles in the walls of the arteries to contract reflexively and narrow their width. Result, if this man wants to have sex, when his sexual arteries should dilate, he took a substance that contracts them. We know that smokers have on average half as much sex as non-smokers, that their sex life stops earlier and that they are less satisfied with it.
So what to do?
Maybe already inform your husband. This may be enough to encourage him to reduce or stop smoking!
When men know thatin a few days, erections can be better thanks to stopping carbon monoxide poisoning from smoke, it can motivate them. This improvement is only seen if the arteries are still in good condition and not narrowed from the inside. Either way, quitting smoking allows you to envision a sex life for years to come.
What method to quit smoking?
Nicotine patches or electronic cigarettes have no harmful effect on the erection, since they provide nicotine (non-toxic) but no tar or carbon monoxide. Your husband can choose one or the other of these methods or even stop by himself or thanks to psychotherapy (hypnosis, sophrology …).
If he’s having a hard time quitting, offer to do not smoke at least 5 to 6 hours before having sex, it may be that his erections are much better.
See a doctor for a prescription for erection medication
A drug from the Viagra® family can help her get better erections. The effect of these drugs is to relax the arteries in the penis, which increases the flow of blood to the arteries during erection, the exact opposite of cigarette smoke. This will therefore limit the damage and give him an erection that he would have if he did not smoke. But beware, this effect does not last for years: if he continues to smoke, his arteries will continue to be damaged, stiffen and shrink and the drug will become less and less effective, even with increasing doses.
Read also:
- Why shouldn’t you smoke before (and after) sport?
- Make love again after a period of abstinence
- Is the couple the enemy of sexual desire?
- Sexo: I had a breakdown, she thinks it’s her fault
