Q. My husband has high cholesterol, despite a very healthy lifestyle and weight. His doctor put him on Lipitor. After the dosage was increased, I started noticing that he wasn’t as enthusiastic about our previously very active sex life. He was having difficulty maintaining an erection and uncharacteristically not initiating lovemaking.
When I asked, he said he just wasn’t feeling aroused and that he’d noticed his usual morning erections weren’t occurring. He asked his doctor if the Lipitor might be responsible, and the doc said to stop it for a month and see what happened.
Within a week his libido returned big time! For a few weeks he was as interested as when we first got married in our early 20s (we are in our early 50s).
Now our sex life is back to normal, as it was before Lipitor. He takes niacin, eats oatmeal every day and exercises regularly, but he is unwilling to have his cholesterol checked. He is afraid the doctor will prescribe Lipitor again. Your thoughts?
A. In searching the medical literature we found an article in Drug Safety (July, 2009) confirming that some statin-type drugs (Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor) are associated with reports of erectile dysfunction. Although this side effect seems to be rare, men may underreport it. We are sending you our Guide to Cholesterol Control and Heart Health for many other ways to get cholesterol down besides statins.
Cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease and your husband should not simply ignore it. Working with his doctor to find an acceptable way to control cholesterol would be better.
