Botox helps men conquer erectile dysfunction, research finds

Botox could soon be providing some very stiff competition for Viagra.

New research has found injections of the anti-wrinkle drug into the penis provide “a clear benefit” for men suffering from erectile dysfunction.

The saucy study was published in the journal Urology after a team of researchers analyzed seven separate trials conducted between January 1990 and July 2021.

The research was led by Dr. Rawad Abou Zahr, a urologist, who declared that the trials showed Botox helped strengthen the erections of many participants for a period of three months.

“As for the duration of benefit from the BoNT-A [Botox] injections, the above studies described a clear benefit within the first three months of treatment,” he stated. “This benefit seems to regress reaching the six months period. This sheds the light on the importance of maintenance regimens in such patients.”

It’s theorized that Botox — a muscle relaxant usually injected into the face — helped improve erections by relaxing the smooth muscle in the walls of blood vessels in the penis.

Combined, the seven trials involved 362 men, with the participants having either Botox or a placebo injected at the base of their penis.

Effectiveness was measured using the “erection hardness scale,” which rates the stiffness and strength of the penis on a scale of zero to four.

Zero is the lowest rating (classified as “penis does not enlarge”) while four is the highest rating (“penis is completely hard and fully rigid”).

One trial showed that about half of participants improved their ranking on the scale, while a second trial showed 40% of impotent participants were successfully able to have sex at least three months after the treatment. 

However, before impotent men rush to book in for a “Botox boner,” the researchers say more trials need to be done — because size matters.

They cited the small sample size of 362 men as one of the study’s limitations.

Since it received FDA approval in 1998, Viagra has been popularly prescribed to treat erectile dysfunction. Recent research on that drug has found it provides unexpected health benefits, slashing Alzheimer’s risk by two-thirds.