sleep apnea and erectile dysfunction

concernedgirlfriend · Post by **concernedgirlfriend** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:26 am

I have read that sleep apnea can affect a man's ability to maintain an erection. My boyfriend uses a CPAP machine and I have noticed that on occasion during the night his mouth comes open and although he doesn't stop breathing you can hear a difference in the air flow. I know from reading that without the much needed REM sleep, spontaneous erections do not occur during the night resulting in problems with maintaining erections during sex. Added to that may be the anxiety he is feeling due to a couple of failed attempts at intercourse. Has anyone else had this experience? I have suggested to him that he return to the sleep clinic for further evaluation. Any suggestions as to what to do would be greatly appreciated.

roster · Post by **roster** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:27 am

[quote="concernedgirlfriend"].... My boyfriend uses a CPAP machine and I have noticed that on occasion during the night his mouth comes open and although he doesn't stop breathing you can hear a difference in the air flow. ........... Any suggestions as to what to do would be greatly appreciated.

Treesap · Post by **Treesap** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:50 am

My husband complained of my snoring. Because I suspected I might be suffering from sleep apnea, I asked him if I stopped breathing, and he said no. I had up to 50 events per hour during some hours of my sleep study. My oxygen level went down to 75%. There was obviously some time I wasn't breathing.

Sleep apnea is so dangerous. I remember waking up at night feeling my heart racing. I can only imagine all of the other things going on.

My husband snores like crazy. He has a deviated septum from a car wreck when he was a teenager. He refuses to get the septum fixed, and he won't go check to see if he has sleep apnea. I try to listen to him, but I just can't tell. I would bet he does though. I know the benefit cpap therapy gave me, so I just keep bringing it up. Some day he may do it. He's been mentioning how badly he feels every morning. Maybe he needs a cpap knock up side the head (like a V8 ).

I would ask your boyfriend to get check the ideas that people have for mouth breathing. He might even benefit from a full face mask. It's an individual thing with the mask though.

jskinner · Post by **jskinner** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 10:52 am

concernedgirlfriend wrote:I have read that sleep apnea can affect a man's ability to maintain an erection. My boyfriend uses a CPAP machine and I have noticed that on occasion during the night his mouth comes open and although he doesn't stop breathing you can hear a difference in the air flow. I know from reading that without the much needed REM sleep, spontaneous erections do not occur during the night resulting in problems with maintaining erections during sex. Added to that may be the anxiety he is feeling due to a couple of failed attempts at intercourse. Has anyone else had this experience? I have suggested to him that he return to the sleep clinic for further evaluation. Any suggestions as to what to do would be greatly appreciated.

Yes this is pretty common. Sounds like he has a mouth leak problem that needs to be corrected. He can try a chin strap, use a full face mask, or taping his mouth shut at night (which is what many of us have had to do)

I would guess that if he can get the apnea under control he will likely get his erections back. He may want to get software so that he can monitor his nightly events so that he can see exactly how well he is doing.

-James

KAZ · Post by **KAZ** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:02 pm

Sometimes high blood pressure(and other) meds can cause the problem,so, that is also a place to check if things were fine until recent RX changes. Regards

rdbyrne · Post by **rdbyrne** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:12 pm

[quote="
My husband snores like crazy. He has a deviated septum from a car wreck when he was a teenager. He refuses to get the septum fixed, and he won't go check to see if he has sleep apnea. "

----------

If he snores, he has apnea.

concernedgirlfriend · Post by **concernedgirlfriend** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:12 pm

My boyfriend is not on any medication at all. He had this problem previously before using a CPAP machine and now that he is on the machine it seems to be more sporadic. Sometimes he can perform and sometimes he can't. Almost always he gets aroused but cannot maintain the erection. I am hopeful with a little tweaking of the CPAP machine he can totally solve the problem. I will ask him to try the tape on the mouth for the next few nights to see if that helps. Although he is not as tired as he use to be duing the day he will still fall asleep sometimes if he sits too long. He is so frustrated with this whole thing. Thanks for your help.

jskinner · Post by **jskinner** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:18 pm

concernedgirlfriend wrote:I will ask him to try the tape on the mouth for the next few nights to see if that helps.

3m micropore tape is often a good choice.

SleepingBeauty · Post by **SleepingBeauty** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:34 pm

Although he is not as tired as he use to be duing the day he will still fall asleep sometimes if he sits too long. He is so frustrated with this whole thing.

It sounds like he's not really getting the full benefit of the treatment. If he is still falling asleep, still having erection difficulties, yet he's trying with the machine, no wonder he's frustrated! I'm hoping the tape will help and at least give him better treatment.

I don't mouth breathe, but my tirated number was not effective enough. I did as was suggested to you - bought a machine that I could check my own statistics. I altered my settings myself, slowly and monitoring the results regularly, and am now getting much better treatment. I still have a few events, but it's so much better than before.

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:47 pm

order him a couple jars of this:

http://www.wonderlabs.com/newshowitems.php

sleepyWI · Post by **sleepyWI** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 5:50 am

Seriously...there is a little blue pill that works wonders... He should not be afraid to ask his doctor about it.

jskinner · Post by **jskinner** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:30 am

sleepyWI wrote:Seriously...there is a little blue pill that works wonders... He should not be afraid to ask his doctor about it.

I'd recommend trying to fix the root of the problem if its OSA first rather than treating the symptom.

sleepyWI · Post by **sleepyWI** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 7:52 am

Disagree very strongly....there is no point spending months (years?) denying intimacy to yourself and your partner while you try to sort out an elusive cause. Once he settles well into cpap and gets the mouth breathing under control he can always try to do without and see what happens.

jskinner · Post by **jskinner** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:11 am

sleepyWI wrote:Disagree very strongly....there is no point spending months (years?) denying intimacy to yourself and your partner while you try to sort out an elusive cause. Once he settles well into cpap and gets the mouth breathing under control he can always try to do without and see what happens.

Elusive? She clearly saw he was mouth breathing, why not try fixing to see if it solves the problem first. Why would that take months or years to fix, shouldn't take more than a few days to find out if it would help?

concernedgirlfriend · Post by **concernedgirlfriend** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 9:54 am

I agree with both of you. He takes Cialis on occasion which allows us to be intimate. However, solving this issue so he doesn't have to take medication is very important to him. Last night he tried taping his mouth closed and will continue to try it to see if it helps. He said his mouth was still very dry this morning even with the tape. He doesn't have a humidifier on his machine and after reading some of the blogs it is something I will suggest. He also does not have the software on his machine to monitor his own health. I have told him about this site and the useful information you have. Thanks for your help and let me know if you have any further suggestions.

sleep apnea and erectile dysfunction