While the new coronavirus vaccines are safe and effective, some people fear that the vaccine causes impotence. The researchers set out to find out if this is the case—whether SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is associated with a higher risk of erectile dysfunction in men aged 45 and older.
This study assessed the risk of developing erectile dysfunction after vaccination against COVID-19. American adults were surveyed anonymously using the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform. Participants aged 45 and older who self-identify as biological males without physician-diagnosed erectile dysfunction completed sixteen questions from a special questionnaire.
Respondents provided information about past diagnoses of COVID-19 , vaccination history and current erectile function. About 47% of the men were vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, 38.3% with the Moderna vaccine, and about 14% with the Janssen vaccine. Data analysis showed that COVID-19 vaccination was not associated with an increased risk of erectile dysfunction. Erectile function was not statistically different between vaccinated and unvaccinated participants.
Overall, these findings could have far-reaching implications for public health decision-making and immunization amid continued concerns about vaccine hesitancy and new mutant variants of SARS-CoV-2.