Is the presence of ED sometimes an indication of a preexisting secondary (comorbid) condition?
Randall B. Meacham: One of the exciting things about the area of erectile dysfunction, we are now just becoming aware of is that not only is sexual dysfunction within itself a very important condition that merits treatment, also we now realize that sexual dysfunction in many men's are associated with other very severe conditions and in some cases maybe the first indication that a physician has, that his patient suffers from high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and other conditions.
So really it's important to bear in mind that that men that have sexual dysfunction are in many cases at higher risks, for such diseases as diabetes, coronary artery disease and host of other illnesses.
Frank J. Costa: Erectile dysfunction may often times be the presenting factor, where a patient goes to the physician for evaluation and it can be indicative of an underlined disease processed other than erectile dysfunction for instance, in the office, the other day, I had a patient that came in with erectile dysfunction and we diagnosed him as having diabetes. So that he came to the office for a one thing, erectile dysfunction and he gave us the opportunity to uncover another illness that he otherwise didn't know he had.
There are other conditions also that can manifest themselves as erectile dysfunction such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, as I mentioned diabetes, high cholesterol levels for instance, and these maybe all conditions that are associated with erectile dysfunction.
Anthony Douglas: There are those that are saying, if you have somebody that comes into your office with erectile dysfunction, even though they are telling you, I am healthy, I don't have any other problems, you need to go looking and particularly for diabetes and vascular disease.
Jeffrey Brady: Erectile dysfunction can occur without any other defined abnormality, any other defined disease. You may find that in say, young men could have general abnormalities or have some sort of trauma, but not every man has who has erectile dysfunction has hypertension or diabetes or coronary artery disease.
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