Sexual activity is safe for most heart, stroke patients
January 19, 2012 in Cardiology
If you have stable cardiovascular disease, it is more than likely that you can safely engage in sexual activity, according to an American Heart Association scientific statement.
The statement, published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, contains recommendations by experts from various fields, including heart disease, exercise physiology and sexual counseling.
"Sexual activity is a major quality of life issue for men and women with cardiovascular disease and their partners," said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., lead author of the statement and a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. "Unfortunately, discussions about sexual activity rarely take place in the clinical context."
The recommendations include:
- After a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, it is reasonable for patients to be evaluated by their physician or healthcare provider before resuming sexual activity.
- Cardiac rehabilitation and regular physical activity can reduce the risk of cardiovascular complications related to sexual activity in people who have had heart failure or a heart attack.
- Women with cardiovascular disease should be counseled on the safety and advisability of contraceptive methods and pregnancy based on their patient profile.
- Patients with severe heart disease who have symptoms with minimal activity or while at rest should not be sexually active until their cardiovascular disease symptoms are stabilized with appropriate treatment.
- Patients should be assessed to see if their sexual dysfunction is related to underlying vascular or cardiac disease, anxiety, depression or other factors.
- Drugs that can improve cardiovascular symptoms or survival should not be withheld due to concerns that such drugs may impact sexual function.
- Drugs to treat erectile dysfunction are generally safe for men who have stable cardiovascular disease. These drugs should not be used in patients receiving nitrate therapy for chest pains due to coronary artery disease (blockages in the arteries that supply the heart with blood), and nitrates should not be administered to patients within 24-48 hours of using an erectile dysfunction drug (depending on the drug used).
- It is reasonable for post-menopausal women with cardiovascular disease to use estrogen that's topically or vaginally inserted for the treatment of painful intercourse.
The absolute rate of cardiovascular events during sexual activity, such as heart attacks or chest pain caused by heart disease, is miniscule because sexual activity is usually for a short time.
"Some patients will postpone sexual activity when it is actually relatively safe for them to engage in it," said Levine, who is also director of the Cardiac Care Unit at the Michael E. DeBakey Medical Center in Houston. "On the other hand, there are some patients for whom it may be reasonable to defer sexual activity until they're assessed and stabilized."
Provided by
American Heart Association
-
Decreased sexual satisfaction is not associated with cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women
Mar 28, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Sexual dissatisfaction in postmenopausal women not linked to cardiovascular disease
Apr 03, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Depressed men with ED at risk for cardiovascular problems
Jul 13, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Sexual activity declines for heart attack patients not getting doctors' advice
May 21, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Erectile dysfunction may indicate an increased risk of heart disease
Nov 23, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Question about perception of colors around light sources
4 hours ago
-
Does a charged particle rotate when traveling through a static Bf?
5 hours ago
-
Find a link between physics and assignment problems
7 hours ago
-
Light as a source of electricity
7 hours ago
-
A question about the energy stored in a capacitor.
7 hours ago
-
Electric field-Charge inside a metallic shell
9 hours ago
- More from Physics Forums - Classical Physics
More news stories
Free fatty acids linked to cardiac risk in late adulthood
(HealthDay)—Blood levels of free fatty acids are associated with insulin resistance during young adulthood and cardiovascular risk factors in later adulthood, according to a study published online May 13 ...
Cardiology
May 17, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
|
Diagnosing heart attacks: There's an app for that
An experimental, inexpensive iPhone application transmitted diagnostic heart images faster and more reliably than emailing photo images, according to a research study presented at the American Heart Association's Quality ...
Cardiology
May 17, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Study suggests new role for ECMO in treating patients with cardiac arrest and profound shock
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a procedure traditionally used during cardiac surgeries and in the ICU that functions as an artificial replacement for a patient's heart and lungs, has also been used to resuscitate ...
Cardiology
May 17, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Stroke patients respond similarly to after-stroke care, despite age difference
Age has little to do with how patients should be treated after suffering a stroke, according to new research from the University of Georgia.
Cardiology
May 17, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
|
Depression linked to almost doubled stroke risk in middle-aged women
Depressed middle-aged women have almost double the risk of having a stroke, according to research published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Cardiology
May 16, 2013 |
not rated yet |
0
Researchers identify a potential new risk for sleep apnea: Asthma
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have identified a potential new risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea: asthma. Using data from the National Institutes of Health (Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)-funded Wisconsin ...
Computational tool translates complex data into simplified 2-dimensional images
In their quest to learn more about the variability of cells between and within tissues, biomedical scientists have devised tools capable of simultaneously measuring dozens of characteristics of individual ...
Study finds that sleep apnea and Alzheimer's are linked
A new study looking at sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two.
New theory on genesis of osteoarthritis comes with successful therapy in mice
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have turned their view of osteoarthritis (OA) inside out. Literally. Instead of seeing the painful degenerative disease as a problem primarily of the cartilage that cushions joints, ...
Ginger compounds may be effective in treating asthma symptoms
Gourmands and foodies everywhere have long recognized ginger as a great way to add a little peppery zing to both sweet and savory dishes; now, a study from researchers at Columbia University shows purified components of the ...
'Gap' for HIV vaccine efforts after latest setback
The hunt for an HIV vaccine has gobbled up $8 billion in the past decade, and the failure of the most recent efficacy trial has delivered yet another setback to 26 years of efforts.