以介入戒菸改善男性勃起功能之經驗
翁偉哲 曾惠珍1
高雄市立聯合醫院 外科部 泌尿科；1高雄醫學大學護理學院
The experience of implementing Smoking cessation to improve sexual health in men
Weng Wei-Che 1Tseng Hui-Cheng
Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital
1College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University
Purpose:
Erectile dysfunction is considered a significant public health problem and is estimated to affect over 180 million men in the world. Large cross-sectional and longitudinal epidemiological studies indicated that chronic smokers are about 1.5 t 2-times as likely as nonsmokers to report erectile dysfunction after controlling for age and confounding cardiovascular risk factors. Although stopping smoking enhances many aspects of health, the positive health benefits of smoking cessation are not sufficient enough for many smokers to considered quitting. The aim of this study was to examine whether smoking cessation was associated with sexual health improvements, with the hope that the results could influence men to stop smoking.
Materials and Methods:
The male smokers, irrespective of erectile dysfunction status, who were motivated to stop smoking, were enrolled in a 12-week smoking cessation program using a nicotine transdermal patch treatment and adjunctive counseling. The participants were accessed at smoking regularly, at mid-treatment and at a 4-week post cessation follow-up. Circumferential change and subjective sexual arousal indices, as well as self-report sexual functioning were assessed at each visit.
Results:
There were total 65 smoking men involved in our study and completed the follow-up. There were 20 successful quitters and 45 relapsed men. The quitted showed enhanced erectile tumescence responses, and faster onset to reach maximum subjective sexual arousal compared with the relapse men.
Conclusion:
Smoking cessation significantly enhances both physiological and self-reported indices on sexual health in long term male smoker, irrespective of baseline erectile impairment. We hoped that this result may serve as a novel means to motivate men to stop smoking. The cigarette smoking brings about the cardiovascular flow change and it is the main cause of erectile dysfunction. Smoking cessation was found to improve both physiological and self-reported indices on sexual health in long term male smoker in our study. This result may encourage the smoking men to stop smoking to enhance their erectile function.