If you weren’t thinking about sex already – there is a good chance that you are now. Sorry about that. However, sex is important to think about, especially if you have sleep apnea, and especially if you use CPAP to conquer the symptoms of your disorder – one of them possibly being erectile dysfunction. While sleep apnea can be detrimental to your sex life, it has long been believed that CPAP can too, thus creating a doubly troubling scenario. The whole CPAP thing isn’t exactly rose petals and candles. Now a new study has provided evidence that CPAP therapy doesn’t really hinder the sex life of sleep apnea patients after all.
The purpose of the study – which was conducted by a team of researchers from Rosalind Franklin University – was to help people abandon the notion that CPAP is bad for your sex life. According to statistics, up to 64% of men with sleep apnea also suffer from erectile dysfunction. In the past, previous studies have shown that CPAP can actually improve erectile dysfunction. But could it be that wearing a bulky CPAP hampers a feeling of sexual attractiveness. Could CPAP put a wrench in foreplay? Is CPAP treatment the cause behind a decrease in sexual quality of life?
In total, 58 patients partook in the study at the VA in North Chicago. The participants had already been officially diagnosed with sleep apnea and were undergoing CPAP with an average compliance of about four hours a night. In the study, the partakers were given the ever-so-awkward Sexual Life Quality Questionnaire, which asks questions like, “How would you rate your sex life,” and, “What is the quality of your orgasms.” It’s a ten question standardized questionnaire that has a total score of 80. It’s the questionnaire you wish you could bring to a third date.
The results of the study were published in the aptly titled journal CHEST, which is certainly not the same magazine your grandfather subscribes to and hides under his bed. They revealed that between the control group and the group that receives CPAP treatment, there wasn’t much of a difference between sexual quality of life. The researchers concluding remarks: “Despite the unsexy presence of PAP device in the bedroom, patients not compliant with CPAP do not have a better sexual quality of life than patients compliant with CPAP.”
In the end, this should be good news to all the ladies and gentlemen out there that are afraid of their CPAP getting in the way in the bedroom. Long has CPAP been painted as the nail in coffin of you getting some. This study should also be the impetus you need to get tested for sleep apnea and to start undergoing CPAP treatment to fight your symptoms. Again, one of those symptoms could be erectile dysfunction. If the one thing that is stopping you from getting treatment is the fact that you are afraid CPAP will make you look and feel unsexy, the truth is that it may just help get your sexy back.
Source: CHEST. “Effect of PAP Compliance on Sexual Quality of Life.” American Academy of Sleep Medicine. October 2014.
