Sleep apnea may cause a treatable form of erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a condition in which breathing stops up to 400 times for 10 to 30 seconds during sleep each night. Researchers at the University of Louisville believe the episodes of oxygen deprivation may trigger ED.
Researchers exposed male mice to a lack of oxygen—chronic intermittent hypoxia or CIH—during sleep. Within a week they showed 55 percent less sexual activity and after a month, the length of time between attempts at mating increased 60 times. When given Cialis, an erectile dysfunction drug, the mice’s sexual activity improved.
Researchers concluded that testosterone levels weren’t affected by oxygen deprivation, so something else must have caused the downswing in sexual activity. They found that the mice who were subjected to sleep apnea had lower levels of an enzyme needed to make nitric oxide and speculated that nitric oxide was needed for blood flow essential to erections.
“Even relatively short periods of CIH…are associated with significant effects on sexual activity and erectile function,” Dr. David Gozal, professor of pediatrics at the University of Louisville, wrote in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Although researchers didn’t recommend men with sleep apnea use ED drugs, they said that using CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines that treat sleep apnea can also help with erectile dysfunction.
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