Smoking and Impotence: Is there a Correlation?

By Brian Welsch   

If you needed another reason to kick the smoking habit, impotence might be a compelling factor. For the past few years, a number of studies appear to connect smoking and impotence and the results are concerning. The evidence shows a correlation between smoking and less action in the bedroom. If you are a smoker, check out these facts about how smoking might affect your love life.

Impotence, also know as erectile dysfunction, is the inability to achieve or maintain an erection for intercourse. It primarily affects older men, but men of any age can experience this condition. Impotence can be due to a number of factors, including alcohol use, medications and some medical conditions. According to a number of different studies, there also appears to be a link between smoking and impotence.

The Research

One rather obscure study, done more than a decade ago, found a link between smoking and impotence in the most obvious way.

The researchers took two groups of men and showed them erotic movies. One group was asked to smoke two high nicotine cigarettes before the movies and the other group was allowed to eat candy. Both groups were hooked up to penile sensors that measure size during the movies. It was found that the group who smoked before the movies had a significantly smaller penile size, which would indicate smaller erections during intercourse.

Other studies have looked back through research on men who have reported impotence issues and found that the majority of men in these studies were also smokers. Some studies have linked smoking and impotence in as many as 27% of the cases that were followed, which is a significant number indeed. It has also been shown that the more a man smokes, the more potential problems he might have in the bedroom. Some studies link heavy smoking and impotence with a 60% higher risk factor.