Nicotine May Cause Erectile Dysfunction in Men

A new study suggests that men who vape nicotine are more than twice as likely to experience erectile dysfunction compared to those who don’t vape. In the first effort to study the relationship between vaping and sexual health, researchers analyzed self-reported data from more than 13,000 men aged 20 and older surveyed in the national Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.

Nicotine has long been called a factor in erectile disfunction. Men who smoked more than 20 cigarettes daily had a 60 percent higher risk of erectile dysfunction, compared to men who never smoked, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Smoking, according to the AHA, and erectile dysfunction have often been associated — individually — with plaque build-up in the arteries, called atherosclerosis.

According to the latest study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those who reported daily e-cig use were 2.2 times more likely to report having erectile dysfunction compared to men who had never vaped, regardless of their other risk factors. In a smaller sample of men younger than 65 with normal BMIs and no history of cardiovascular disease, the trend persisted: vapers were 2.4 times more likely to experience ED compared to non-vapers.

While some may view vaping as a healthier alternative to cigarettes, consuming nicotine in excess will always come with risks, lead author Omar El Shahawy, MD, told Insider. “Overall, e-cigarettes are likely less harmful than smoking cigarettes to the degree that they substitute cigarette smoking,” El Shahawy, assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone, wrote in an email to Insider. “For men who smoke and want to switch because vaping is less harmful, they should try to limit their vaping because it is simply not risk free.”