The prevalence of erectile dysfunction in HIV-positive men.

Introduction: Our aim was to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors of erectile dysfunction (ED) in a cohort of HIV-infected male patients, and to test the testosterone levels for those with ED. Materials & methods: We evaluated a cohort of HIV infected men. They completed a questionnaire based on IIEF (maximum score 30 for questions 1,2,3,4,5,15) and for those with ED (IIEF-score less than 25) testosterone level was determined. Participants gave information related to smoking and drug consumption and current antiretroviral therapy. Results: Forty-four HIV-infected men were enrolled, all of them completed the questionnaire, mean age was 35.9 ± 10.5 (range 23 - 69). 23 patients complained of ED (52.2% of total). 14 patients had mild erectile dysfunction (score between 22-25), six patients had mild to moderate erectile dysfunction (score between 17-21), three patients had moderate erectile dysfunction (score between 11-16). Total testosterone level was tested for three patients, all having normal values (>10nmol/L). Six patients refused the test. We found no correlation (Pearson Correlation Coefficient) between ED and tobacco smoking (R=0.1011, p=0.51), drug consumption (R=0.1664, p=28) and therapy with protease inhibitors (R=0.0244, p=0.89). Conclusions: Our study showed a prevalence of erectile dysfunction of 52.2% in the HIV-infected men evaluated, with mean age 35.9 ± 10.5. We found no correlation between tobacco use, drug consumption or protease inhibitors (PI) therapy and ED. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]