Ladies: No need to feign a headache - just give your man a statin!

This study was published in Drug Safety 2009;32(7):591-7

Study title and authors:

Statins and erectile dysfunction: results of a case/non-case study using the French Pharmacovigilance System Database.

Do C, Huyghe E, Lapeyre-Mestre M, Montastruc JL, Bagheri H.

Université de Toulouse, UPS, Unité de Pharmacoépidémiologie EA 3696, Toulouse, France.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19530745

The object of this study was to investigate the association between exposure to drugs such as statins and the occurrence of erectile dysfunction. Over a 20 year period the researchers extracted data about 110,685 men aged 13 - 80 years old who had reported an incidence of erectile dysfunction to see if they had being taking statins, fibrates or other drugs.

The study found:
(a) Statins users had a 275% increase in erectile dysfunction.
(b) Erectile dysfunction usually started to occur within 1 month.
(c) Just over half of these men recovered if they stopped taking the statins.
(d) Erectile dysfunction happened no matter what the dose or duration of the statin therapy.
(e) Fibrate users had a 260% increase in erectile dysfunction.
(f) Men on beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists (beta blockers) had 50% increased rates of erectile dysfunction.
(g) Those taking tricyclic antidepressants had double the risk of erectile dysfunction.
(h) Men having finasteride (used for male pattern baldness) were over 14 times more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction.

This study reveals that statins and other drugs are a major risk factor in erectile dysfunction.