North Richmond Today

• People who suffer from chronic sinusitis are at risk of developing erectile dysfunction.
• Medications such as Sudafed and other decongestants can also cause erectile dysfunction.
• New treatment options, such as balloon sinuplasty, are available for patients with chronic sinusitis.

Men who suffer from chronic sinus issues risk also developing erectile dysfunction, according to Dr. John Ditto of Richmond Breathe Free Sinus & Allergy Centers, and several studies examine links between the two. Ditto explained that chronic sinusitis can affect a person's health in a number of ways.

“There has been a study that looked at erectile dysfunction and sinusitis,” Ditto told North Richmond Today. “Now, we know that if you have obstructive sleep apnea, that causes nasal obstruction, and that is combined together to cause obstructive sleep apnea. So if your nose is obstructed because of chronic sinusitis and you have sleep apnea, you just can't sleep, then your sleep apnea is going to cause problems with male sexual function. And so there's a correlation."

According to the National Institutes of Health, erectile dysfunction is described as a man’s inability to achieve and maintain an erection that can enable satisfactory sexual intercourse, affecting 5% of men in the U.S., according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

According to Yahoo Sports, citing a study from Kaohsiung University in Taiwan, men suffering from chronic sinusitis are 50% more likely to suffer from erectile dysfunction compared to men who do not suffer from sinusitis. According to the Kaohsiung study, sinusitis causes blood flow in the male genitals to be reduced.

According to WebMD, patients diagnosed with chronic sinusitis have several options for treatment, including balloon sinuplasty and endoscopy. Endoscopy is a procedure in which a physician inserts a flexible endoscope to allow her to see inside the sinus cavity and find the blocked area. Endoscopy doesn't require making any incisions, so recovery time is reduced. It also noted that the procedure is done with local anesthesia, so the patient remains awake while blockages and polyps are removed with instruments.

During a balloon sinuplasty procedure, the physician inflates the balloon, which clears the obstruction, enabling the sinuses to drain properly.

If you're interested in learning more about diagnosis or treatment of chronic sinusitis, please take this Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz.