Erectile dysfunction in a man without an obvious cause often shares its mechanism with coronary artery disease and can appear years before cardiac symptoms.
A man presenting with new erectile dysfunction deserves the same cardiovascular risk assessment as any other patient with a vascular warning sign.
- Check blood pressure, lipids, glucose or HbA1c and smoking status in new erectile dysfunction
- Ask about exertional chest pain or breathlessness
- Calculate a cardiovascular risk score and act on it
- Check for nitrate use before prescribing a PDE5 inhibitor
Why it matters
The urology clinic may be the first place a man's vascular disease is detected.
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