Going to space increases the risk of erectile dysfunction

By Jim Leffman via SWNS

Male astronauts could be left struggling to perform in the bedroom after coming back to Earth, according to a new study.

Researchers found that cosmic radiation and weightlessness could leave spacemen with erectile dysfunction for the rest of their lives.

The team from Florida State University set out to see whether space travel can negatively affect vascular tissues relevant to the condition.

Although their experiments were carried out on rats, they believe that relatively low doses of galactic cosmic radiation and to a lesser extent simulated weightlessness could lead to problems.

Writing in The FASEB Journal, they concluded that erectile problems were induced primarily through increases in oxidative stress and that treatment with different antioxidants could counter some of these effects.

Author Dr. Justin La Favor said: “With manned missions to the Moon and Mars planned for the coming years, this work indicates that sexual health should be closely monitored in astronauts upon their return to Earth.

“While the negative impacts of galactic cosmic radiation were long-lasting, functional improvements induced by acutely targeting the redox and nitric oxide pathways in the tissues suggest that the erectile dysfunction may be treatable.”

The team took 86 rats and exposed them to four weeks of hindlimb unloading or weight-bearing control and cosmic radiation simulation at the NASA Space Radiation
Laboratory.

After 12-13 months of recovery, they were then examined to see what damage was still evident.

Dr. La Favor added: "The four-week intervention was designed to mimic the environment astronauts would face in an exploratory mission to the Moon or Mars.

"These findings indicate that simulated spaceflight exerts a long-term impairment of neurovascular erectile function, which exposes a new health risk to consider with deep space exploration.

"Collectively, these results suggest that neurovascular function of the erectile tissues
may be impaired throughout the remainder of the astronauts' sexual health span following return to Earth from prolonged deep space exploration."