Glucose Control Limits Erectile Dysfunction

Intensive glycemic therapy reduces the risk of ED in young men with Type 1 diabetes, researchers report. The benefit was limited to a secondary prevention cohort containing men with mild microvascular complications at baseline. But no matter where a young man with Type 1 diabetes falls on the spectrum of glucose control, “There is a benefit to tight control, namely a lower risk of ED,” said lead author Dr. Hunter Wessells. Six hundred men with Type 1 diabetes participated in a study of intensive or conventional glycemic therapy. In the men with some microvascular manifestations, however, the tightly controlled patients did have a significantly lower rate of ED: 12.8%, vs. 30.8% in those managed with non-intensive therapy. Higher hemoglobin (Hb)A1c was significantly associated with ED risk in both cohorts. J Urol 2011:185;1828-1834.