Medical Oddities: Long workweeks meet erectile function

From work stress to lullabies, bay leaves, and one-legged cycling, medicine gets weird.

To examine the relationship between workplace stress and erectile function in full-time working men.

Study Design: A study conducted by Zhejiang University School of Medicine involving 826 full-time working men aged 22 to 40 years.
Stress Measurement: A workplace stress index was developed to assess working hours, promotion pressure, decision-making autonomy, supervisor support, and colleague relationships.
Erectile Function Assessment: Erectile function was measured using the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) scores.

Mean IIEF-5 scores decreased from 22.86 in the lowest-stress group to 15.28 in the highest-stress group.
Erectile dysfunction prevalence increased from 8.21% to 54.37% as stress levels rose.
Moderate to severe erectile dysfunction reached 18.45% in the highest-stress group.
Morning cortisol levels increased from 12.45 to 21.68 μg/dL, while testosterone levels decreased from 5.82 to 3.46 ng/mL.
Each additional 10 working hours per week was associated with a 1.82-point decrease in erectile function scores.
Supervisor support showed the strongest protective association against erectile dysfunction.

The study does not confirm that workplace stress directly causes changes in erectile function.
The sample was limited to men aged 22 to 40 years, which may not represent the broader population.