Erectile Dysfunction
Concerns have been raised in recent years that 5-alpha reductase inhibitors might have serious and persistent sexual side-effects—even in previously healthy young men using low-dose finasteride for alopecia. There’s even an organization devoted to “post-finasteride syndrome.”
But a new study based on a large primary-care database in the U.K. offers reassurance that 5-alpha reductase inhibitors don’t actually increase the risk for erectile dysfunction in everyday clinical practice.
Led by Katrina Wilcox Hagberg, an epidemiologist at the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, the researchers studied 71,849 men age 40 and older with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) who were prescribed a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (finasteride or dutasteride) or an alpha-blocker or both during the period from January 1992 to December 2011. The men were initially free of sexual dysfunction and risk factors such as prostate cancer.
During followup, 5,768 men were diagnosed with erectile dysfunction or had a related procedure or prescription. The risk of erectile dysfunction was not increased with the use of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors only, or 5-alpha reductase inhibitors plus an alpha-blocker, compared with alpha-blockers only. However, the risk of erectile dysfunction increased with longer duration of BPH, regardless of drug exposure.
In a separate analysis of 12,346 men with alopecia, of whom 547 developed erectile dysfunction, the risk was not increased for the 463 men who had been prescribed finasteride 1 mg compared with those who didn’t take the drug.
“The results of this study provide reassurance that these drugs are not associated with a materially important increased risk of clinically meaningful erectile dysfunction in everyday clinical practice,” the researchers concluded.
This study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
But a new study based on a large primary-care database in the U.K. offers reassurance that 5-alpha reductase inhibitors don’t actually increase the risk for erectile dysfunction in everyday clinical practice.
Led by Katrina Wilcox Hagberg, an epidemiologist at the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program, the researchers studied 71,849 men age 40 and older with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) who were prescribed a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor (finasteride or dutasteride) or an alpha-blocker or both during the period from January 1992 to December 2011. The men were initially free of sexual dysfunction and risk factors such as prostate cancer.
During followup, 5,768 men were diagnosed with erectile dysfunction or had a related procedure or prescription. The risk of erectile dysfunction was not increased with the use of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors only, or 5-alpha reductase inhibitors plus an alpha-blocker, compared with alpha-blockers only. However, the risk of erectile dysfunction increased with longer duration of BPH, regardless of drug exposure.
In a separate analysis of 12,346 men with alopecia, of whom 547 developed erectile dysfunction, the risk was not increased for the 463 men who had been prescribed finasteride 1 mg compared with those who didn’t take the drug.
“The results of this study provide reassurance that these drugs are not associated with a materially important increased risk of clinically meaningful erectile dysfunction in everyday clinical practice,” the researchers concluded.
This study was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.