Selective adherence to antihypertensive medications as a patient-driven means to preserving sexual potency

Original Research

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Authors: Corrine I Voils, Margarete Sandelowski, Philipp Dahm, Rachel Blouin, Hayden B Bosworth, et al

Published Date August 2008 Volume 2008:2 Pages 201 - 206

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S3796

Corrine I Voils^1,2, Margarete Sandelowski³, Philipp Dahm^4,5, Rachel Blouin¹, Hayden B Bosworth^1,2, Eugene Z Oddone^1,2, Karen E Steinhauser^1,2

¹Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; ²Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA; ³School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; ⁴Gainesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Gainesville, FL, USA; ⁵Department of Urology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Objective: To describe hypertensive patients’ experiences with sexual side effects and their consequences for antihypertensive medication adherence.

Methods: Data were from a study conducted to identify facilitators of and barriers to adherence to blood pressure-lowering regimens. Participants were 38 married and unmarried veterans with a diagnosis of hypertension and 13 female spouses. Eight patient and four spouse focus groups were conducted. A directed approach to content analysis was used to determine the facilitators of and barriers to adherence. For this report, all discussion concerning the topic of sexual relations was extracted.

Results: Male patients viewed sexual intercourse as a high priority and felt that a lack of sexual intercourse was unnatural. They pursued strategies to preserve their potency, including discontinuing or selectively adhering to their medications and obtaining treatments for impotence. In contrast, spouses felt that sexual intercourse was a low priority and that a lack of sexual intercourse was natural. They discouraged their husbands from seeking treatments for impotence.

Conclusion: Although the primary study was not designed to explore issues of sexual function, the issue emerged spontaneously in the majority of discussions, indicating that sexuality is important in this context for both male patients and their spouses. Physicians should address sexual side effects of antihypertensive medications with patients, ideally involving spouses.

Keywords: hypertension, sexual side effects, antihypertensive medication, adherence, blood pressure