Dehydration and Erectile Dysfunction: Is There a Correlation?

January 12, 2022

4 mins

Erectile dysfunction is a common occurrence for men, with as many as 50% of guys over the age of 40 experiencing ED in the United States.

With so many potential causes, it can be challenging to figure out exactly how to treat it. Fortunately, effective and easy-to-use prescription medications like Viagra® can help most men treat the symptoms of ED. And while these medications can help you achieve a strong erection, they're not a cure.

Examining and addressing the root cause of the issue is key. One of the lesser known and infrequent causes of erectile dysfunction? Dehydration.

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What Is Dehydration?

Dehydration can be measured a few ways, but it’s most simply when a person has an inadequate amount of fluid in their system.

It occurs as the result of using or losing too much fluid, but can also happen if someone fails to get enough fluid intake. Most commonly, it’s a combination of both.

While anyone can become dehydrated, it’s most dangerous in young children and older adults, as the consequences can be severe for these susceptible groups.

The amount of fluid you need to stay properly hydrated varies based on a few factors. The size of the person, their level of physical activity, overall health, and exposure to warm or hot climates can all significantly impact the amount of fluid required to stay healthy. In general, it’s recommended that you drink eight (8) 12-ounce glasses of water daily, or roughly 3,000 milliliters. That's 96 ounces of water each day, about two-thirds of a gallon (and we can all picture a 1-gallon milk jug).

While this amount can typically keep a person properly hydrated, there are other factors that may require additional fluids.

For example, drinking alcohol or caffeine and eating salty foods can all be dehydrating. A night at your favorite pub with wings and a few beers can quickly necessitate some extra water later that night (or morning!) to compensate. Additionally, heavy amounts of exercise, feeling sick or under the weather, and experiencing hot or humid weather can also necessitate extra fluids to maintain healthy hydration.

Sometimes it can be difficult to tell if you're drinking enough water or not. To ensure that all of your bodily systems are running properly and you've got enough fluid, you should typically not experience a dry mouth or excessive thirst throughout the day. A better indicator through the day may be the color of your urine. Your pee should be light yellow to clear or nearly-clear. If you're experiencing constant thirst, you may be dehydrated to some degree.

Other signs of dehydration include:

A reduction in both amount and frequency of urine
Confusion or disorientation
Darker colored urine
Dizziness
Dry mouth and tongue
Dry skin
Elevated heart rate
Headache
Lack of sweating despite being hot
Low blood pressure
Low stamina
Thirst
Tiredness

People that are chronically under-hydrated or dehydrated can experience severe complications that might include:

Heat exhaustion and heatstroke
Kidney failure, infections, and stones
Low blood volume shock
Muscle cramps
Seizures
Urinary tract infections

Dehydration is most often the result of someone experiencing an increased loss of fluids. There can be many reasons for this, with some of the most common including:

Diabetes
Diarrhea
Exercise
Fever
Excessive Sweating
Heat exposures
Increased urination
Vomiting

The Effects of Dehydration on the Body and on Erections

There are a few ways that dehydration can negatively impact the body. After all, your body is basically a big bag of H2O, roughly 75% water. Being one or two percent dehydrated can rapidly impact cognitive ability and memory.

After reaching four percent dehydration, most people begin to experience an increase in temperature, headaches, sleepiness, and irritability, along with a decrease in muscle strength and endurance. While each of these issues can impact sexual performance too, here are some more specific ways that dehydration can impact erections.

Low Blood Volume

Quite simply, the better that a person is hydrated, the “more” blood they have. This increase in blood cells and plasma can help blood flow more efficiently through the veins and arteries in the body, including those located in the penis.

Blood is the linchpin to a strong erection, the cause of your penis' rise as it fills with blood (as much as 7X the normal amount of blood it has when flaccid).

The better that a person’s blood flow is, the stronger their erection can be. On the other hand, lower levels of hydration can lead to a decrease in blood volume and the oxygen it carries. If blood volume, oxygen levels, or blood pressure are too low, then achieving and maintaining an erection can become difficult.

Hormone Changes

When someone experiences dehydration, their body responds by releasing several hormones.

One of these is angiotensin, which is a known vasoconstrictor. This means that your blood vessels tighten and constrict, resulting in an increase in blood pressure and a decrease in blood volume that is available to reach the penis. This combination can make erections much more difficult to maintain.

Another hormone that's released when dehydrated is called cortisol. It only takes being under-hydrated by one liter of water for this stress hormone to be released. Cortisol is more commonly associated with the “fight or flight” response and elevates the body's natural defenses while lowering or inhibiting “non-essential” functions. One of the effects of higher levels of cortisol is lower levels of testosterone, the male sex hormone. Testosterone can help to create erections by acting as a vasodilator of various arteries in the penis. By expanding these arteries, testosterone helps to improve blood flow and therefore helps with achieving and sustaining erections.

Psychological Impact

The influence that your mood has on erections is often understated. While an erection is a physical reaction, it also requires mental stimulation. Mild dehydration seems to have a more pronounced effect on the mood of women, but men can also experience an increase in anxiety, tension, and depression. Feelings of sadness or lethargy, like those experienced during depression, can have a severely negative impact on the ability to become aroused, achieve an erection, or orgasm.

How To Improve Erectile Function

Clearly, maintaining adequate hydration goes a long way towards helping with the erection process. While experiencing occasional issues with erections is perfectly normal, frequent difficulties could be the sign of an underlying medical condition. High blood pressure, diabetes, and heart conditions are the most common physical causes of erectile dysfunction, but high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression may also be a cause.

If you're frequently experiencing erectile dysfunction, you should consider seeing a doctor to diagnose a possible cause. At the very least, you may be able to get a prescription for a medication like Viagra® or Cialis®, which are great ways to help treat the symptoms of erectile dysfunction.

In addition to taking medications, lifestyle changes can help decrease the severity and frequency of erectile dysfunction. These changes include:

Getting more exercise. Just a 30-minute daily walk can be enough to reduce your risk of erectile dysfunction. Improving the strength and health of your heart with exercise can improve blood flow and vascular capabilities, some of the most critical aspects to achieving an erection. When exercising, be sure to maintain adequate hydration.
Eat a balanced diet. Foods that are high in sodium and saturated fat can reduce hydration and contribute to constricted arteries through atherosclerosis. By reducing you intake of these foods and increasing how many fruits, vegetables, and whole grains you eat, you may be able to lower blood pressure and keep your vascular system functioning well.
Ditch the bad habits. Smoking is damaging to just about every system in the body, one of them being your vasculature. The nicotine in tobacco is a known vasoconstrictor and will narrow and tighten veins and arteries, leading to an increase in blood pressure. Drinking alcohol is another habit to cut back on. Not only does alcohol dehydrate you and lower blood volume, but it’s effects as a depressant can make arousal and stimulation more difficult.
Get enough sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body raises its levels of cortisol, which as we’ve discussed, lowers testosterone and heightens the body's stress response. Additionally, sleep is when your body takes time to repair itself and rest. Going long periods of time with inadequate sleep can contribute to several health issues, including erectile dysfunction.
Lower stress. Stress is a necessary emotion that helps the body identify threats and respond accordingly. But elevated stress over a long period of time can be damaging to the body. Finding healthy ways to eliminate or reduce stress can help to boost mood, supporting your ability to get aroused and sexual desire.

The Takeaway

Dehydration affects the erection process in several ways. The physiological effects of being under-hydrated or dehydrated can easily contribute to experiencing erectile dysfunction, though this is not a common cause. Adequate hydration requires about 96 ounces of water daily for most people, or 2/3 of a gallon.

If you're sure that you're drinking enough water but still experience erectile dysfunction, it may be time to talk to a doctor. The licensed clinicians at Rex MD can help you determine if generic ED meds might be a good fit for you, and it's all done online with meds shipped to your door if approved. It's fast and affordable. Click here to get started.