Loading...
In the 12 years that sildenafil and its competitors have been on the market, investigators have attempted, without much success, to determine whether these drugs have influenced patterns of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Now, researchers have analyzed a huge U.S. insurance-claims database and have concluded that these drugs have had minimal effects.
Among 1.4 million men (age, >40), about 6% were prescribed erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs between 1997 and 2006. Users were older than nonusers and had more comorbid conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. In the year before they received their first ED drug prescriptions, users were more than twice as likely as nonusers to have had STDs (whether a chronic condition, such …