COVID-19 Quarantine Dramatically Affected Male Sexual Behavior: Is There a Possibility to Go Back to Normality?

ABSTRACT

We performed a monocentric longitudinal study on sexually active male patients, from May 2021 to October 2021, with SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed with a nasopharyngeal reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The questionnaires were delivered by email. The study period was divided into the periods before getting tested (T1), during quarantine (T2), 1 month after a negative test (T3), and 3 months after a negative test (T4). All participants were invited to complete these questionnaires 10- and 6-item questionnaires, a sexual distress schedule (SDS), and the international index of erectile function questionnaire of 15 items (IIEF-15). The primary endpoint was to evaluate the impact of quarantine on male sexual function (SF) during and after the SARS-CoV-2 infection. A total of 22 male patients met the inclusion criteria. The differences for both SDS and IIEF-15 scores, between T1-T2 (27 (IQR 24.0-32.2) vs. 37.5 (IQR 34.2-45.5), 45 (IQR 38.0-50.2) vs. 28.5 (IQR 19.5-38.0)), T2-T3 (37.5 (IQR 34.2-45.5) vs. 28 (IQR 24.0-31.0), and 28.5 (IQR 19.5-38.0) vs. 39.5 (IQR 35.5-44.2)) were statistically significant (p < 0.001), respectively. Moreover, between T1-T4, no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) was recorded in both SDS (27 (IQR 24.0-32.2) vs. 26.5 (IQR 24-30.2)) and IIEF-15 (45 (IQR 38.0-50.2) vs. 28.5 (IQR 19.5-38.0)). In 20 patients (90.9%), SARS-CoV-2 had a huge impact on relationship and sexual life, but no patient attended a clinic for sexual difficulties. In conclusion quarantine has negatively influenced SF in infected patients; however, 3 months after the rRT-PCR negative test, a promising return to the preinfection SF values is observed.