Hypertension is associated with severe erectile dysfunction

Purpose: The prevalence and severity of erectile dysfunction in patients wi th hypertension need to be further evaluated. We evaluate medical and hyper tension status, and erectile function in patients with hypertension. Materials and Methods: The International Index of Erectile Function, which is a detailed questionnaire, including well established components to evalu ate patient medical history, hypertension status and erectile dysfunction, was mailed to 476 male patients of the outpatient Hypertension Center of Co lumbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Results: The questionnaire was completed by 104 (22.3%) patients, and mean age was 62.2 years (range 34 to 75). Of the patients 84.8% were sexually ac tive and 68.3% had various degrees of erectile dysfunction, which was mild in 7.7%, moderate in 15.4% and severe in 45.2%. Compared to the general pop ulation of erectile dysfunction cases in the literature our study populatio n with hypertension had a higher incidence of severe erectile dysfunction. Although correlations of antihypertensive medications with incidence of ere ctile dysfunction did not reach statistical significance, there was a clear trend with patients treated with diuretics and beta-blockers having the hi ghest incidence and those treated with alpha-blockers having the lowest inc idence of erectile dysfunction. Conclusions: In addition to the observation that erectile dysfunction is mo re prevalent in patients with hypertension than in an age matched general p opulation, our study shows that it is more severe in those with hypertensio n than in the general population.