Potential genetic association between coffee/caffeine consumption and erectile dysfunction: a Mendelian randomization study and meta-analysis
Open accessAbstract
Background: Coffee is a widely consumed beverage with potential benefits for various chronic diseases. Its effect on reducing erectile dysfunction (ED) risk is unclear. This Mendelian randomization (MR) study investigates the impact of coffee/caffeine consumption on ED. Methods: Two sets of coffee consumption-associated genetic variants at the genome-wide significance level were obtained from recent studies of coffee consumption. Taking into account other sources of caffeine, genetic variants associated with caffeine consumption from tea were also obtained. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was utilized as the primary analysis. Sensitivity analysis methods and meta-analysis methods were performed to confirm the robustness of the results, while the genetic variants associated with confounders, e.g., diabetes and hypertension, were excluded. Results: Genetically predicted coffee/caffeine consumption was unlikely to be associated with the risk of ED in the Bovijn datasets, with similar directional associations observed in the FinnGen datasets. The combined odds ratio for ED was 1.011 (95% CI 0.841–1.216, p=0.906) for coffee consumption from the genome-wide meta-analysis, 1.049 (95% CI 0.487–2.260, p=0.903) for coffee consumption from the genome-wide association study, and 1.061 (95% CI 0.682–1.651, p=0.793) for caffeine from tea. Conclusion: Using genetic data, this study found no association between coffee/caffeine consumption and the risk of ED.
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Pooled data from two large meta-analyses found no causal association between caffeine intake and erectile dysfunction.
“but pooled data from two large meta-analyses found no causal association.[41][42][43]”
From A systematic appraisal of emerging alternative therapies in men’s health and wellness (2025) · cites this paper as [42]
The Results (Meta-analysis) report no detected causal relationship between genetically predicted coffee/caffeine consumption and erectile dysfunction. But the paper describes one meta-analysis combining results from two ED datasets, not pooled data from two meta-analyses. Its Conclusion also limits the finding to no strong evidence of an association in a European population, rather than establishing that no association exists. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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A systematic appraisal of emerging alternative therapies in men’s health and wellness
Qaoud, Y., Morcos, M., Macdonald, M., Shoeib, A., Qureshi, Y., Mak, M., Ross, A., Vigil, H., & Witherspoon, L. (2025) · Canadian Urological Association Journal · doi:10.5489/cuaj.9368 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Chen, Z., Li, Y., Meng, C., Li, X., Liao, H., Li, X., Zeng, Y., Li, X., Zhou, T., & Deng, Q. (2025) · Frontiers in Medicine · doi:10.3389/fmed.2025.1674086
- Authors
- Xiang, N., Hu, Y., Peng, W., Luo, M., Chen, H., & Zhang, Q.
- Affiliations
- North Sichuan Medical University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zhang, Qiuhua
- Venue
- Frontiers in Endocrinology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2024-10-09
- Volume
- 15
- Pages
- 1400491-1400491
- ISSN
- 1664-2392 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11497819
- OpenAlex
- W4403245754
- Cited by
- 1
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 0.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Endocrinology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Coffee research and impacts
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Sexual function and dysfunction studies
- Keywords
- coffee consumption, caffeine consumption, erectile dysfunction, genetic variants, Mendelian randomization, tea, FinnGen, genome-wide association study, inverse variance weighting
- MeSH terms
- Caffeine, Coffee, Humans, Erectile Dysfunction, Male, Tea, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Genome-Wide Association Study, Mendelian Randomization Analysis
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