For now, researchers are unable to determine whether it is cardiovascular disease that is the cause of erectile dysfunction or vice versa.
Erectile dysfunction can be a major handicap in a man’s life. A team of British researchers has taken an interest in these pathologies and has observed that they are frequently associated with cardiovascular disorders. They publish their results in the scientific journal BJU International.
A higher mortality risk
The analysis of different databases on erectile dysfunction and on cardiovascular diseases allowed the researchers to prove several correlations. The prevalence of erectile disorders is higher in certain pathologies such as hypertension, arteriosclerosis or ischemic heart disease.
“Men with erectile dysfunction also have a higher risk of death from any cause, and death from cardiovascular disease,” the researchers describe in their report. The data at their disposal did not allow them to clarify the causal relationship: is it cardiovascular diseases that increase the risk of erectile dysfunction or the reverse?
How to know the number of men concerned?
The team of researchers also finds that erectile dysfunction is an increasingly high share of healthcare expenditure in the United States: the budget rose from $185 million in 1994 to $330 million in 2000. Aging of the population, the increase in obesity or even diabetes can increase the risk of being affected. But it is difficult to know the extent of these disorders in the population. Scientists have gathered different studies on the subject: the prevalence of erectile dysfunction is between 3 and 76.5% according to research.
According to them, these significant variations are linked to the techniques used. In most cases, scientists use internationally recognized questionnaires such as the International Index of Erectile Function, but others use less common and not necessarily recognized methods of analysis. The latter would be at the origin of this large amplitude in the results. In France, about 3.5 million men are affected, especially those over 60 years old.
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