MALE SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION AMONG ASTHMATIC PATIENTS. A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

: Background: Asthma affects 1–18% of the population in different countries. Its prevalence varies worldwide but more than 5% of any investigated population suffer from asthma. The effect of asthma on sexual function of these patients is still not clear. Aim of the Work: This work aims to assess the relation between asthma and erectile dysfunction, and if there is any relation between the degree of asthma severity and the severity of erectile dysfunction. Patients and Methods : Our study was conducted on two groups: Group A includes 120 male asthmatic patients who were enrolled consecutively from the patients attending outpatient clinics of Helwan University hospitals and Abassya Chest diseases Hospital and group B (the control group) including 100 healthy volunteers. Results: It was found that asthmatic patients included in the current study had lower International Index of Erectile Function 5 (IIEF-5) scores than the controls. Also, we found that most of cases of moderate asthma had mild erectile dysfunction (73.2%) and only 8.5% had mild to moderate erectile dysfunction. While most of those with severe asthma, 39.5% had mild ED and 31.6% had mild to moderate ED Conclusions: Patients with asthma have a higher prevalence of erectile dysfunction. Education level, occupational status, asthma duration, asthma severity and control level were independent risk factors for sexual dysfunction and poor quality of life. Therefore, to improve the quality of life, patients with asthma should be evaluated holistically, their sexual functions should be taken into account and multidisciplinary approaches should be applied.