NSAIDs could pose erectile dysfunction risk among men

PASADENA, Calif. — Long-term use of a class of drugs used to control pain could increase the risk of erectile dysfunction in men, according to a new study.

The study, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente and published online in the Journal of Urology, found that men who took nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs, three times a day for more than three months were 2.4 times as likely to have erectile dysfunction as men who didn’t take the drugs regularly. The study used data from 80,966 men ages 45 to 69 years in California.

After controlling for such factors as age, race, ethnicity, smoking, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the researchers found the risk was 1.4 times as high in regular users of NSAIDs.

“We went into this study thinking we would find the opposite effect: that NSAIDs would have a protective effect because they protect against heart disease, which is also linked to [erectile dysfunction],” study senior author Steven Jacobsen said. “The next step is to dive a bit deeper to understand the underlying physiology of what might be happening with these drugs.”