Since the pandemic that hit the planet in 2020, theories about Covid-19 and its countless potential consequences have been rife. The effects of long Covid are of particular interest to the medical profession, who regularly deal with patients suffering from shortness of breath, headaches, difficulty organizing their thoughts or even altered taste, as listed by the World Health Organization (WHO). But the list is not exhaustive, explains Forbes magazine.
Based on a study published on February 21 in the journal Scientific Reports, the American media reveals that around 19% of men who were hospitalized due to Covid-19 continue to suffer from erectile dysfunction two years later. 609 individuals were consulted to achieve this result which seems to indicate that SARS-CoV-2 also caused damage to the genitals.
These results were obtained as part of a larger study, the Covid-19 Recovery Study II, carried out on patients admitted to around twenty Japanese hospitals between March and September 2021. Objective of this work: to observe in the short, medium and long term the harmful effects of the virus on the health of affected people. Regarding the question of erection, all the men interviewed were at least 20 years old and the median age of the group was 48 years old.
Short or long term
We note that the erection problems did not occur at the same time for each of the patients. Among those who declared having developed erectile dysfunction in the two years following their infection with Covid-19, 68.1% stated that it occurred within twenty-eight days following the appearance of the virus and 4.3% rather mentioned a delay of two to five months for the appearance of the first problems.
As early as December 2020, Forbes mentioned the possible consequences of Covid-19 on erections. SARS-CoV-2, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), can indeed cause a reduction in the oxygen level in the blood, which is likely to damage the inner lining of blood vessels, called vascular endothelium. Erections occur when blood flows through the arteries to the corpora cavernosa, these tubes of spongy tissue located in the shaft of the penis. Obstruction of blood flow in these tubes could make erection difficult.
Other factors can also explain how long Covid could have had an impact on erectile function: fatigue, anxiety or even the sleep disorders that it causes can also be part of the causes of a loss of quality of erections. The study reveals that people with erectile dysfunction also have higher rates of shortness of breath and fatigue.
There is, however, good news. In a quarter of the men affected, erectile dysfunction problems tend to improve, within a period of one month to one year. Another quarter had to wait one to two years to notice any progress, while 49.1% of the individuals consulted unfortunately still noticed no progress after two years.
