The universe can play cruel jokes.
Last month, your man had trouble getting it up. To you it wasn’t that big of a deal —just inconvenient. To him, a lot more was at stake than just one romp in the hay. A trip to his doctor identified that he had high blood pressure and that this was a likely cause of his erectile dysfunction. The doctor prescribed some BP medication to help him out.And it did—for the most part. Sexual arousal and performance returned to near normal and everything seemed to be back on track.But just a couple of days ago, the erectile dysfunction started reappearing—it was as though the medication wasn’t working anymore or maybe he needed a higher dose.But would you ever suspect that it was the blood pressure drug itself itself that caused the negative effect on his sexual performance? It seems contradictory, but this is actually the case for certain types of high blood pressure (aka hypertension) medications. (I did preface this article by saying the universe can play cruel jokes). 70% of men with side effects from blood pressure medicine stop taking itHaving your sex life shut down as a side effect of BP medication certainly makes it rough to stay on them, especially if high blood pressure never caused any symptoms before. It’s not at all surprising that 70% of men who have side effects from high blood pressure medicine, like impotence, stop taking it.
Nowadays there are a lot of blood pressure medications available. It’s not surprising that you might find it hard to navigate the many lists of drugs that are available over the counter and by prescription.Every man is different too—certain medications have particular side effects for some men while those same medications might have the complete opposite effects for others.Don't get stuck in a vicious cycleYou don’t want to be stuck in a vicious cycle either—taking high blood pressure medication in order to improve your sex life, but then finding that the medication doesn’t help at all or even just makes it worse!So get informed! If you are not already regularly tracking your blood pressure trends using an app (like Hello Heart, iOS, Android), you need to start. This isn't rocket science. Recording and understanding what the numbers mean keeps gives you a huge leg up on the problem.In Part II of this blog, we give you some tips to help you be more aware about what you or your partner are consuming so that you’re equipped with knowledge you need when consulting with physicians on a treatment strategy that works best for you in and out of the bedroom.
1. Gazit T, Gutman M, Beatty AL. Assessment of Hypertension Control Among Adults Participating in a Mobile Technology Blood Pressure Self-management Program. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(10):e2127008, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.27008. Accessed October 19, 2022. (Some study authors are employed by Hello Heart. Because of the observational nature of the study, causal conclusions cannot be made. See additional important study limitations in the publication. This study showed that 108 participants with baseline blood pressure over 140/90 who had been enrolled in the program for 3 years and had application activity during weeks 148-163 were able to reduce their blood pressure by 21 mmHg using the Hello Heart program.) (2) Livongo Health, Inc. Form S-1 Registration Statement. https:/www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1639225/000119312519185159/d731249ds1.htm. Published June 28, 2019. Accessed October 19, 2022. (In a pilot study that lasted six weeks, individuals starting with a blood pressure of greater than 140/90 mmHg, on average, had a 10 mmHG reduction.) NOTE: This comparison is not based on a head-to-head study, and the difference in results may be due in part to different study protocols.
2. Validation Institute. 2021 Validation Report (Valid Through October 2022). https://validationinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Hello_Heart-Savings-2021- Final.pdf. Published October 2021. Accessed October 19, 2022. (This analysis was commissioned by Hello Heart, which provided a summary report of self-fundedemployer client medical claims data for 203 Hello Heart users and 200 non-users from 2017-2020. Findings have not been subjected to peer review.)
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