Testosterone Therapy Has No Effect on Erectile Dysfunction, Study Finds

A new study has found that testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) does not help ejaculatory dysfunction (ED) in men with low testosterone.

WebMD.com reports that in a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism on July 9th, Dr. Darius Paduch and his team of researchers from the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York found no evidence to suggest that TRT helps men who suffer from low testosterone with any problems they may have regarding ejaculation. The researchers estimated that 10-18% of men suffer from some kind of ED, which includes an inability to ejaculate, low ejaculation volumes, weak ejaculation force, and delayed time to ejaculation.

There is no treatment in the United States for ED approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“This is the first clinical trial examining the treatment of a very common but poorly understood condition that affects men’s physical health as well as their interpersonal relationships,” Dr. Paduch said.

The study involved 66 men ages 26 and older with low testosterone and ED. The participants were part of a controlled experiment in which each man received either a 2% testosterone topical solution or a placebo cream. After four months, the group that received the testosterone ointment still had problems with ED and did not show much of a difference from the control group.

Some medical experts weren’t surprised by the findings. Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a urologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, notes that testosterone has no influence over ejeculatory function.

“Testosterone levels have long been known not to affect ejaculatory function,” Dr. Kavaler said. “Orgasm is a function of the sympathetic nervous system, which does not respond to testosterone. Libido and sexual interest increase with testosterone, but not the ability to orgasm.”

Dr. Paduch acknowledges the ineffectiveness of TRT on ED but is nonetheless hopeful a treatment for ED will be discovered.

“Although the participants in this study did not experience any significant improvement in ejaculatory function, we hope our work will spur the development of additional clinical trials to find treatments for this condition,” he said.

Low testosterone affects up to 13 million men in the U.S.