Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Sexual Health in Heart Failure: How Age, Sex, and Dyspnea Interact to Shape Intimacy and Unmet Clinical Needs
Authors' conclusion
HF profoundly alters sexuality. Dyspnea severity is the dominant independent driver of sexual inactivity and represents a potentially modifiable therapeutic target. These findings call for systematic, gender- and age-sensitive, dyspnea-graded sexual counselling in routine HF care.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with heart failure (HF), aged 18–93 yearspatients with HF, 655 (46.9%) provided detailed responses · men 921 · women 477
- Participants
- 1,398 patients
- Comparison
- how HF affects intimacy and sexuality across sex, age and symptom burden
- menn = 921
- womenn = 477
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Provided detailed responses
P < 0.001
- Overall provided detailed responses
- 655 (46.9%)
Further findings
No sexual activity · previous three months
Independent predictors of sexual inactivity
| Comparison | OR (CI) | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Severe dyspnea | 3.88 (2.26–6.64) | P < 0.001 | |
| 0.10.31310Odds ratio (log scale) |
| Outcome | Men | Women | Estimate | P value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported sexual problems | |||||
| Erectile dysfunction | 49.0% | Not reported in the abstract | women: not reported in the abstract | ||
| Treatment side effects | 39.5% | Not reported in the abstract | women: not reported in the abstract | ||
| Loss of desire | Not reported in the abstract | 65.4% | men: not reported in the abstract | ||
| Reduced sense of seductiveness | Not reported in the abstract | 61.5% | men: not reported in the abstract | ||
| Depression | Not reported in the abstract | 42.3% | men: not reported in the abstract |
Sexual inactivity by age group
- 18-40 years
- 52.9%
- 41-55 years
- 50.0%
- 56-65 years
- 48.3%
- ≥66 years
- 65.5%
- χ2=17.02, p=0.001
Sexual inactivity by dyspnea severity
- Grade 1
- 47.8%
- Grade 2
- 50.3%
- Grades 3-4
- 79.0%
- χ2=40.96, p<0.001
Independent predictors of sexual inactivity
- Sex and age were not significant after adjustment
Never discussed sexuality with their cardiologist
- Overall
- 72-80%
- Regardless of dyspnea severity or age
Original publication
Sexual Health in Heart Failure: How Age, Sex, and Dyspnea Interact to Shape Intimacy and Unmet Clinical Needs. ESC Heart Fail. Published 19 October 2026. doi:10.
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it