Testosterone is poorly related to erectile dysfunction in young/middle aged human immunodeficiency virus-infected men.

Background human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infection is strongly associated to erectile dysfunction (ED) in men. Preliminary data suggests that ED is poorly associated with serum T in HIVC men. Aim To investigate in HIV-infected men the relationship between sexual function as assessed by the validated International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-15) and T deficiency using Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Methodology Prospective, cross-sectional, observational study on HIV-infected male patients with ongoing Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART), attending the Clinic of Infectious Diseases. IIEF-15 and IIEF-5 questionnaires were used to define ED, while LC-MS/MS was used for hormonal assays. Results 233 consecutive HIV-infected patients were enrolled (mean age 45.29G5.33 years). Eight patients (3.4%) had total T !300 ng/dl, while 142 patients (61.5%) had ED (score %25). Age, hormonal data and duration of HIV-infection and HAART did not differ among groups of patients according to the degree of ED. The direct comparison of each ED cluster showed that months of infection were significantly higher in men with severe ED compared to mild ED (PZ0.037). The erectile function domain at IIEF-15 was directly correlated with IIEF-5 score (0.778, P!0.001), as expected. Moreover, the IIEF-15 score was inversely related to months of infection (K0.147, PZ0.026), but not to months of HAART therapy (K0.121, PZ0.071). Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first, properly-designed prospective study aiming to investigate the relationship between erectile function and serum T, assessed by LC-MS/MS in HIV-infected men. In our cohort, i) IIEF-5 is reliable as IIEF-15 for ED diagnosis, ii) ED is not associated with serum T, iii) erectilef unction is not influenced by T and HAART, but only by HIV-infection duration. In conclusion, several specific factors, such as the duration of HIV infection, are involved in erectile function in HIV-infected men and should be carefully considered in this setting, while hormonal status seems to be less important. DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.49.EP1166