Sleep Apnea May Cause Erectile Dysfunction
Men with sleep apnea may suffer from a treatable form of erectile dysfunction caused by regular deprivation of oxygen experienced during these episodes of obstructed breathing, a new report says.
University of Louisville researchers found that, in a study of mice, one week of chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) — the lack of oxygen suffered during obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) — resulted in a 55 percent decline in their daily spontaneous erections. After five weeks, the length of time between mice attempts at mating increased on average by 60-fold.
The findings, published in the second September issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, showed that when the mice went back on standard oxygen levels for six weeks, they recovered 74 percent of their original erectile function.
