Is Chemotherapy Related with Erectile Dysfunction in Non-Urologic Cancer Patients?

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is characterized as men’s inability to terminate or hold penile erection to complete the coitus (1). Sexual dysfunction (SD) contributes to quality of life (2). Malignancy can cause sexual adverse effects by direct and indirect ways. It can involve sexual organs, indirectly affect body image, or cause depression or fatigue with effects on libido (3). Most sexual disabilities are not caused by the cancer itself, but by side effects of cancer management(4). Chemotherapyandradiotherapy-related SD generally ends after the completion of therapeutic manipulations, whereas anatomical defects due to surgery might have a permanent effect on the patients’ sexual activity (2, 5). Other aspects that play a role include subjects’ age, general and urogenital co-morbidity, and degree of ED before cancer treatment (6-9).