Room 517-D | Male Sexual Dysfunction: An Integrative Approach Tuesday, July 12, 2005 Time: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM |
Erectile Dysfunction as a barometer of Men’s Health.
Buvat, Jacques*,1, 1 CETPARP, France
ABSTRACT- Erectile Dysfunction (ED) is strongly associated with many risk factors and comorbidities. It can also be the early and first sign of a more general underlying disease. There is accumulating evidence suggesting it could be a sentinel event for cardiovascular disease (CVD) evaluation, because it represents a marker of vascular disease (VD), sometimes only at its very beginning (endothelial dysfunction), and a predictor of progression of CVD, including a two-fold increase in the risk of acute myocardial infarction. ED may also be the revealing symptom of other types of VD including High Blood Pressure and CerebroVascular Disease, or of Vascular Risk Factors likely to lead to VD or to aggravate it, while their treatment may prevent disease progression: diabetes, hyperlipidemia, heavy smoking, obesity, metabolic syndrome. This confirms the major importance of VD in ED etiology, although these highly significant associations with vascular risks or diseases do not rule out the necessity of social and/or psycho-behavioural factors for initiating and/or maintaining ED in conjunction with VD. ED may also be the revealing symptom of depression, a condition strongly associated with both ED and VD, and of endocrine diseases like hypogonadism and hyperprolactinemia. As such ED may be considered as a barometer of Men’s Health, and men should be systematically screened for ED as part of periodic examinations. Early detection of ED may especially allow for early diagnosis of CVD and diabetes which may result, through fighting the risk factors, in an improvement in disease prognosis and a spontaneous reduction in ED, or a facilitation of its specific treatment.
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