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When Steven Bell caught Covid-19 this spring, he was surprised that he didn’t have a fever. Rather, it felt like a bad sinus infection. Soon, he lost his sense of smell, and went on to develop insomnia. He felt like the virus was also affecting his circulation, and would swing his arms in circles to keep the blood flowing. Then, more bafflingly, when he and his wife were intimate, he couldn’t get an erection. “It was frustrating and infuriating for me, because I knew it wasn’t working the way it should,” said Bell, a 49-year-old from Phoenix, AZ. “My ego wouldn’t accept that I was performing like an 80-year-old in the bedroom.”
Some men who have survived Covid-19 say that the virus may have impacted their ability to get or maintain an erection. That tracks with the idea that Covid-19 is a vascular disease, which Elemental senior writer Dana Smith explained at length in May, as blood flow is important for getting or maintaining an erection. Erectile dysfunction can occur at any age — and becomes more common as men get older — and may affect up to a third of all men. In the context of Covid-19, men as young as 39 have been documented to experience erectile dysfunction as they recovered from the virus.
“In order to have really great sex, you…
