COVID-19 Left 20% of Men With Erectile Dysfunction

Fellas, if the devastating lingering effects of long COVID aren’t enough to convince you to get a COVID shot alongside your annual flu vaccine, maybe this will. The University of Minnesota just released a study confirming the findings of a 2021 study that suggested that men could suffer from erectile dysfunction after they contracted COVID-19.

The 2021 study found that the virus could cause long-term damage to the penis that makes it more difficult for men to achieve and maintain an erection. The new study, published on March 6 by the University of Minnesota and conducted by researchers at Yokohama City University Hospital in Japan, found that one in five men had erectile dysfunction lasting up to two years after having had COVID-19.

20% of Men Who Had COVID-19 Now Have Erectile Dysfunction

The study included 609 men in Japan who had all been hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2021. 19 percent of them reported erectile dysfunction in the years after getting sick. As for why, the researchers say that yes, of course, issues like depression, anxiety, and disturbed sleep patterns play a role.

But there’s a physical effect left behind by the virus that can’t be ignored: COVID-19 damages penile blood vessels, preventing them from properly swelling with blood to achieve an erection. This vascular damage can linger within the body long after you’ve recovered from the immediate symptoms of the virus.

COVID-19’s long-term effects are still being explored. At this rate, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be giving us psychic abilities or the power to fly. It can leave you dazed, exhausted, and with a nonfunctioning penis for the rest of your life.

But don’t worry too much, because you can just get yourself a 3D-printed penis prosthetic once science figures out how to scale them up from rabbits and pigs to humans.