Regular use of painkillers has been reported to be potentially linked to erectile dysfunction (ED). Middle-aged men often take more painkillers and NSAIDS, such as Ibuprofen, in order to seek relief from the inevitable aches and pains that come with getting older but unfortunately thus contributing to another age related condition, ED. The study published in The Journal of Urology showed that aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen were commonly used by older men and the majority of ED sufferers are found to being among the older generations too. Often older men take aspirin every day to decrease the risk they have of heart attacks and strokes and the study’s authors are definitely not advocating that they stop.
The study showed that 1 in 3 men in their forties stated that they used NSAIDS regularly and of that group, 13% of them reported ED. More than half of those participating in the over fifties group reported the regular use of these tablets and 42 per cent of them reported problems with ED. Other contributing factors were taken into consideration like diabetes, smoking and the effects of age but there were still unexplained cases where an underlying cause could not be ascertained. The evidence is not strong enough to suggest that the use of such medication has a definite impact on ED but further research will be carried out. Our view is that the evidence presented is extremely weak and if there is a link then it does not appear to be a strong one.