The evaluation of sexual dysfunction in male patients with migraine and tension type headache

Erectile dysfunction (ED), defined as the inability to achieve or maintain an erection sufficient for satisfactory sexual performance, is a common condition. The psychological, hormonal, neurogenic and arterial pathologies, medications, chronic diseases have been reported in the etiology of the ED. This paper aims to study sexual dysfunction in the male patients with migraine and Tension type headache (TTH).

30 migraine cases (Group M), 31 TTH cases (Group T) and 30 control cases (Group C) were included in the study. Patients were evaluated with medical history, physical examination, body mass index (BMI), Beck Depression Inventory, biochemical analysis and hormone profiles. ED was evaluated via International Index of Erectile Function Scale (IIEF). In statistical analysis, variant analysis, post-hoc tukey test, Pearson correlation test, t-test, and fisher's exact chi-square test were used.

The patients' mean age was 34.96+/-1.30, 35.54+/-1.52 and 32.26+/-1.38 for group M,T and C, respectively. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of testosterone levels. Mean IIEF scores was 19.83+/-2.2, 20.39+/-1.35 and 27.83+/-0.34 in groups M,T,C. When M and T groups were compared with group C, there were significant differences, and there was no statistical difference when T and M groups were compared to each other. Beck Depression Scores were not significantly different in groups M, T and C.

In this study, it was shown that, migraine and TTH affects the sexual functions negatively in male patients. Chronic diseases may cause sexual disorders in patients because of despair, guilt, and fear of death or pain. Our results suggest that, along with the effect of chronic disease and pain, there must be other complicated factors exist causing the development of SD in patients with migraine and TTH.