Persistent erectile dysfunction in men exposed to the 5a-reductase inhibitors, finasteride, or dutasteride
Kiguradze et al., 2017
“We expect our finding of an association between debilitating sexual dysfunction and exposure to finasteride or dutasteride will be of particular interest to prescribers and patients considering medical management of androgenic alopecia”
Kiguradze et al. provided a well-designed analysis of a large set of data from the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse with sole regards to persistent erectile dysfunction following use of finasteride or dutasteride. Detection of sexual dysfunction was necessarily dependent on what clinicians had entered into the medical record.
They conclusively identified a strong and intrinsic association between debilitating persistent sexual dysfunction and exposure to low dose finasteride or dutasteride. Duration of 5-alpha reductase inhibitor exposure was a greater predictive risk factor for ED in young men than all other assessed factors.
Of 4,284 young men, without prior sexual dysfunction, taking finasteride at a dose less than 1.25 mg/day, 34 (0.79%) developed persistent erectile dysfunction (defined as persisting for in excess of 90 days).
