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Premature ejaculation among men with erectile dysfunction—findings from a real-life cross-sectional study

Abstract

Concomitant sexual disorders have progressively shown increased prevalence in men at first outpatient presentation. We sought to i) estimate the prevalence of unreported premature ejaculation (PE) in a homogenous cohort of 1258 men seeking first medical help for erectile dysfunction (ED) as their primary compliant; ii) compare the baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of men with only ED(ED-only) compared to those with ED and PE(ED + PE); and, iii) investigate the likelihood of detecting PE among men self-reporting only ED over a 16-year period at a single tertiary-referral centre. Descriptive statistics compared sociodemographic and clinical characteristics between ED-only patients and those with unreported concomitant primary/secondary PE(ED + PE). Logistic regression models predicted the risk of having ED + PE at baseline. Local polynomial regression models graphically explored the probability of reporting PE among ED men with ≤40 vs. 41–60 vs. >60 years over the analysed timeframe. Of all, 932 (74.1%) were ED-only and 326 (25.9%) ED + PE patients, respectively. ED + PE patients were younger, presented with fewer comorbidities, and lower rates of severe ED (all p ≤ 0.04). At multivariable logistic regression analysis, younger age (OR:0.98) and low sexual desire/interest (OR:1.54) were independently associated with ED + PE at first clinical assessment (all p = 0.03). The likelihood of detecting unreported concomitant primary/secondary PE among patients complaining of only ED at first presentation worrisomely increased among younger and middle-aged men over the last 16 years.

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Fig. 1: Local polynomial regression models showing the probability of reporting ED + PE over the analysed time frame.

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Contributions

Conception and design of the study: SC, EP, GF, AS. Data acquisition: FB, AD, LB. Analysis and interpretation of data: SC, EP, GF, AS. Drafting the manuscript: CI, VM, FM. Style revision: CC, PC, AS. All authors revised the manuscript and read and approved the version submitted.

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Correspondence to Andrea Salonia.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Data collection followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki; all patients had signed an informed consent agreeing to deliver their own anonymous information for future studies. The study was approved by our local ethics committee.

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Cilio, S., Pozzi, E., Fallara, G. et al. Premature ejaculation among men with erectile dysfunction—findings from a real-life cross-sectional study. Int J Impot Res 35, 558–563 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-022-00601-4

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