Incidence of Erectile Dysfunction and Testosterone Deficiency in Testicular Cancer Survivors.

Abstract

This project aims to characterize the incidence of men's health disorders, specifically focusing on the incidence of erectile dysfunction (ED) and testosterone deficiency (TD) in a large, nationwide study of Testicular cancer (TC) survivors treated in a centralized healthcare system. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of US Veterans diagnosed with TC from 1990 to 2021. These were compared to an age and race-matched control group of US Veterans without a diagnosis of TC. ED and TD were defined by the presence of diagnosis codes or at least a 6-months prescription for medications treating these conditions or both. Time was measured from date of TC diagnosis (for TC patients, and matched TC patient date for the corresponding non-cancer controls). Impact of chemotherapy among TC survivors on ED and TD was evaluated using multivariable Cox regression models. The cohort included 1754 patients with TC compared to 7117 non-cancer controls, with a mean age at diagnosis of 42 years. TC patients were significantly more likely than controls to experience ED (hazard ratio 2.97, 95% CI 2.68 to 3.28, P < .001) and TD (hazard ratio 6.71, 95% CI 5.78-7.81, P < .001). However, within the TC group, there was no significant difference in the incidence of ED and TD when stratified by receipt of chemotherapy (P = .9 and P = .066, respectively). Men's health disorders arise commonly in the lives of TC survivors. It is important for treating physicians to identify these and conduct sexual health assessments as part of survivorship care.