The subject of this article sounds inherently funny, but it is apparently a rather serious and painful issue for men around the world. As first reported in The Journal of Sexual Medicine and highlighted by Study Finds, millions of men suffer from a condition called Peyronie’s disease. That’s where scar tissue forms inside the penis and causes painful curvature during erections. There are a few treatment options, but even fewer that actually do anything.
That might be changing soon, now that researchers think they’ve found a one-two punch combo of medications that might do the trick, both of which are old meds that have been on the market for years. You most definitely already know about one of them: Viagra. The other is tamoxifen, usually used to treat breast cancer.
Researchers Found an Unexpected Drug Combo That Could Help Men With Painful Curved Erections
In previous research, scientists observed that the two medications appeared to work together to combat the internal scarring associated with Peyronie’s disease. A new clinical audit tested the combination in actual patients, finding that 43 percent of men who took the drug combo for three months saw improvements in their painful penis curvature, with pain during erections dropping dramatically.
The control group received either standard care for Peyronie’s disease or vitamin E doses. Nearly a third of them said the pain actually got worse.
The researchers laid out the limitations of their study and were careful not to oversell the findings. It wasn’t fully randomized, for instance. But for anyone whose penis is bending painfully like it’s being cranked around by a clown making a balloon animal, the findings represent a bit of hope.
The post Scientists Think Viagra Could Help Treat More Than Erectile Dysfunction appeared first on VICE.
