News Flash: Men With ED Don’t Have Sex Often

Okay, so my headline is a little sarcastic. There’s a report out on a study suggesting that an active sex life in older men reduces the chances of ED.

It’s tempting, I’m sure, for older men to quote this to their wives who have been reluctant to engage in lovemaking. It might not be helpful, because if she doesn’t want to have sex to begin with, it might give her incentive to decrease the frequency even more hoping the man will get ED). Of course, anyone involved in research can tell you that correlation does not establish causation. How do we know that it wasn’t ED that led the men who had less sex to have less sex in the first place? Perhaps the things that caused ED (such as obesity) also turned off potential sexual partners. Or, in the case of women attracted to money – if a man has less testosterone and is therefore less aggressive or ambitious, he might find himself with ED and without a sexual partner – independent of each other, with both cause by the hormonal imbalance.

In a study that followed nearly 1,000 older Finnish men for five years, researchers found that those who were regularly having sex at the start of the study were at lower risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by the study's end.

In fact, the more often the men had sex, the lower their ED risk.

The implication, say the researchers, is that men should be encouraged to stay sexually active into their golden years.

Hey, I don’t need any more encouragement.

Overall, those who said they had sex less than once per week were twice as likely to develop ED over the next five years as men who had sex at least once a week. Furthermore, compared with men who had sex three or more times per week, their ED risk was increased nearly four-fold.

A number of factors contribute to ED development, many of which could also affect a man's sexually activity -- such as age, diabetes and heart disease. However, after taking account of those factors, sexual activity itself remained linked to ED risk, Koskimaki's team found.

That’s key to making determinations.

It may be a matter of "use it or lose it," according to the researchers. Just as exercise boosts physical fitness, they note, regular sexual activity may help a man preserve his erectile function.

ED occurs when there are problems with blood flow to the penis. Regular sexual activity, Koskimaki's team writes, may help maintain healthy blood vessel function in the erectile tissue.

Sex is a form of exercise.

The news report doesn’t mention the marital and fidelity status of the participants, nor their masturbation frequency. The personal characteristics of a man’s wife just may have some correlation to whether or not he develops ED.

Along with what we know about prostate health, wives should take note: If you want a healthy husband, encourage him to have frequent erections and ejaculation. The best way to do this, of course, is to be his "girlfriend".