Men treated with hypolipidaemic drugs complain more frequently of erectile dysfunction.

The objective of this study was to assess whether there is an association between impotence and treatment with hypolipidaemic drugs. We asked patients referred to a lipid clinic for primary hyperlipidaemia whether they were complaining of erectile dysfunction. All the patients with a previous cardiovascular history were excluded. The main cardiovascular risk factors and the treatments currently being taken were carefully recorded to analyse their association with erectile dysfunction. The population consisted of two groups (treatment group and control) of 339 age-matched men (mean age: 48 +/- 9.5 years). Our results revealed that there were more impotent men in the group of patients treated with hypolipidaemic drugs (12% vs. 5.6%, P = 0.0029). Multivariate analysis showed that erectile dysfunction was dependent on treatment with fibrate derivatives (odds ratio: 1.46; 1.27-1.68) and statins (odds ratio: 1.51; 1.26-1.80). We conclude that erectile dysfunction is a frequent disorder in hyperlipidaemic men. Our results suggest that this symptom could be a side-effect of hypolipidaemic drugs. If further studies confirm our data, the search for the mechanism and the consequences of this possible side-effect will be useful and important.