【The influence of Cialis and Levitra on the sperm】

When taking ED curatives (Viagra, Cialis and Levitra), isn’t there a bad influence on the sperm? Or can it be a cause of male infertility? For the people who really want a baby, it must be a serious concern. In the previous column “Vol.22 Is it true that Viagra causes sperm abnormality?” We explained that, in any case, the influence which Viagra has on the sperm is considered to be very little. This time we are going to talk about the other two ED curatives, Cialis and Levitra.
As for the influence on the sperm when taking Cialis (tadalafil), there are many obscure points and the research results vary, as in some reports say that taking it once made the sperm’s motor-ability declined, and in the other results say that even if taking it for six or more months every day, hardly any significant changes are seen in the sperm’s motor-ability and number, morphology change, volume, male hormone and gonadotrophic hormone secretion. We have to look forward to more research in the future. Because Cialis is an ED curative which has been recently developed, and a fewer results about the safety have been reported compared with Viagra. However, more than 10,000,000 people in the world have already used it. Considering that there is no conclusive report about the effect on sterility which is caused by the intake of Cialis, we consider that there is only very little influence to sperm.
There are few reports which have studied the influence on the sperm when taking Levitra (Vardenafil) and the research scale was also very small. There was a research result which reported that, when taking 10 mg of Levitra every day for 45 days, the total number of sperm, motor-ability and survival ability were increasing and also there was an improvement in the morphology change. When taking Levitra, the semen-volume increases more than usual as more prostatic-fluids which protect sperm are secreted. The researchers explained that the result wasn’t because Levitra directly acted on the sperm, but the environment was set for it as the quantity of the prostatic-fluid in the semen was increased and it became easy for the sperm to survive. On the other hand, the other research result said that any change in the motor and survival ability, density of the sperm or morphology change wasn’t seen with the single use of 20 mg of Levitra. Therefore, as for the influence of Levitra on the sperm it can be assumed that it may have a good effect but there also may have no effect at this stage. We have to wait for further research. Levitra is proud of it’s worldwide market share which is comparable to Cialis. Supposing that there is no report about having a connection to sterility which is caused by the intake of Levitra as well as Cialis by millions of patients, we can think that there is only a small influence to the sperm.
References
1. Alterations in sperm motility after acute oral administration of sildenafil or tadalafil in young, infertile men. Fertil Steril 2007; 88: 860-5.
2. Tadalafil has no effect on spermatogenesis or reproductive hormones. J Urol 2003; 70: 887-91.
3. National Cooperative Reproductive Medicine Network. Sperm morphology, motility, and concentration in fertile and infertile men. N Engl J Med 2001; 345: 1388-93.
4. A single dose of Vardenafil had no acute effect on sperm motility in healthy males. 27th annual meeting of the American Society of Andrology, April 24-27, 2002, Seattle, Washington, USA.
5. Effects of vardenafil in sperm parameters and semen biochemistry. 32nd annual meeting of American Society of Andrology, 21-25 April, Tampa, USA. J Androl (Suppl). 2007; 28: 60.

【Supervisor of this article】

Ken Takemori, MD. An anesthesiologist and Director of Shibuya 3rd Block Clinic.