Men chronically infected with hepatitis C virus often suffer from sexual dysfunction, and it seems to have nothing to do with their age or with underlying depression, new study results suggest.

Dr. Edmund J. Bini and associates recruited 112 men with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and a comparison group of 239 “control” subjects treated at the Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System in New York City from January 2004 through March 2005.

The subjects completed questionnaires to assess sexual function, depression, and their health-related quality of life.

As reported in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, the researchers found 54 percent of the HCV-infected men reported they were not sexually satisfied compared with 29 percent of the controls.

After adjusting for demographic and clinical factors, the HCV-positive patients were more than three times more likely to report sexual dissatisfaction.

The same pattern was seen for the other areas of male sexual function assessed - sex drive, erectile function, ejaculation, and sexual problem assessment - regardless of the men’s marital or socioeconomic status or age.

The men with hepatitis also reported worse health-related quality of life. Conversely, only the control subjects showed a link between depression and sexual dysfunction, even though HCV was associated with higher depression scores.

Bini and his team point out that patients with diabetes, kidney failure, prostate cancer, and alcohol abuse were excluded from the study, so those disorders could not be the reason for the findings.

Abnormalities in hormone regulation resulting in low testosterone levels might be responsible for the sexual dysfunction in men with hepatitis C, the investigators suggest.

“Based on these findings,” they say, “HCV infection should be considered in the differential diagnosis of sexual dysfunction in men.”

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SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, June 2006.