Changes in Male Sexual Function

Abstract

Sexual dysfunction is common with advancing age;1–4 frequency of sexual intercourse decreases and erectile dysfunction commonly increases with age. However, decline in sexual function (measured as coital activity) is only indirectly associated with advancing age, is not necessarily inevitable, and varies among individuals. Sexual dysfunction arises from psychologic, physiologic, and pathologic causes within one or more of the following categories5,6: (a) sexual appetite or desire; (b) sexual arousal, including erectile dysfunction; (c) orgasmic, including inhibited orgasm and premature ejaculation; and (d) sexual pain disorders. The first two categories are most commonly seen in older individuals. By age 75, at least 50% of men have developed impotence7 Despite these numbers, sexuality is poorly understood and sexual disorders are frequently underdiagnosed and under-treated in older men.