The Covid-19 pandemic surely affected lives both financially and emotionally and infact sexually too. “The lockdown which was there until the recent May, brought in many normal people with complaints about sexual dysfunction”, says Dr. Rahul Reddy, Andrologist, Androcare and Andrology Institute, here in Hyderabad.
Further speaking on the new cases with sexual dysfunction, Dr. Rahul Reddy said, “Four major issues that include stress and anxiety due to the economic insecurities brought down by the lockdown, lack of Vitamin D to the body from staying indoors, excessive intake of alcohol during the stay at home and lack of minimum exercise to the body, were the major reasons why normal people, who were active and sexually healthy before the lockdown, reported issues about sexual dysfunction after the lockdown,”.
Discussing the importance of a few factors, “Both Vitamin D and regular exercise are important to the males as these are linked to male sexual health. The lockdown, many reported with vitamin D deficiency and had minimum to no exercise resulting in sexual dysfunction. Adding to these are the excessive alcohol intake and stress, that affected male sexual health during the lockdown”.
Informing about the part of the treatments, he said, “Although few people were aware of the online treatment facilities, many didn’t know this, while few hesitated to take an online consultancy that resulted in no treatment with sexual health issues,” he added.
“I had many of my old patients who were continuing infertility treatments through online consultation and issues related to dysfunction was the area where I had to give a few supplements instead of the regular treatment. But people who were unable to get through the labs for any tests faced issues and resulted in no treatment due to the lockdown,” he explained.
“The sperm count in males usually has a 10% variation due to the excessive heat during the summers. But it was observed that the count had fallen to 70% variation and we as doctors are yet to find out if this has any relation with the Corona Virus infection silently or is it just stress-related”, Dr. Reddy stated.
He further added that “China earlier clarified that the virus has no effect on the testis and it cannot enter testis. But in the later researches, they said that it might affect the testis in virus attacked people and might take up to six months for them to recover from this.”
While discussing the factors that can affect male sexual health he mentioned that diet, exercise, sleep, and sedentary lifestyles are all directly linked to sexual health in both males and females. He suggested that a good night's sleep is important for a male body to allow the hormonal production they need for having an active sexual life. “Exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes, a proper diet also plays a major role in men to have good sexual health,” he explained.
When raised doubt about having intercourse during the pandemic, Dr. Reddy said, “If there is a possible environment to have regular sex and if both the partners are not exposed to the virus, having regular sex is not a problem. Infact it reduces stress and helps in building the relationship stronger.”
He suggested that people use this time positively to build good relationships amongst family and between the married couples, as a time like this cannot happen again.
