COVID-19 and erectile dysfunction: What long COVID means for your erections

Yes, having COVID-19 can raise your risk of erectile dysfunction (ED), especially as part of long COVID. Research links prior COVID-19 infection to a 27% higher risk of newly diagnosed ED (Hebert et al., 2023), and one 2025 study found 19% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reported ED as a long-COVID symptom (Kato et al., 2025).

The good news: for most men, this isn’t permanent. There’s a lot you can do about it, starting with understanding why it’s happening.

Does COVID-19 cause erectile dysfunction (ED)?

It can increase your risk. Multiple peer-reviewed studies link COVID-19 infection to higher rates of ED, though it isn’t inevitable, and researchers are still working out exactly why it happens. If you’re new to the topic, Mojo’s full guide to erectile dysfunction covers the basics before you get into the COVID-specific research below.

A large US study tracked 42,406 men who had COVID-19, using insurance claims data from January 2020 to January 2021, before vaccines were widely available. Men with a prior COVID-19 infection had a 27% higher risk of being newly diagnosed with ED than men the same age without COVID-19 (Hebert et al., 2023). That held even after accounting for other common causes of ED, like diabetes, smoking, and obesity.

So yes, there’s an increased in risk. But it’s not a guarantee that every man who gets COVID-19 will develop ED. The two are connected closely enough for researchers to see it clearly in the data.

Long COVID’s link to erectile dysfunction

Long COVID is the name for symptoms that stick around for months after a COVID-19 infection clears. Erectile dysfunction is one of them.

Doctors also call this post-viral syndrome, since similar lingering symptoms show up after other viral infections too. Fatigue, breathlessness, brain fog, and low mood are the most talked-about long-COVID symptoms, but ED belongs on that list as well.

A 2025 study of 609 men hospitalized with COVID-19 in Japan found that 19% reported ED as a long COVID symptom one to two years after their infection (Kato et al., 2025). Men with ED in this study also reported more fatigue, more breathlessness, and higher depression scores than men without it. Sleep problems showed up as a factor too.

The bottom line is that long COVID ED often shows up alongside the exhaustion, low mood, and disrupted sleep of long COVID itself. It rarely shows up as a stand-alone problem.

What’s really driving it: psychological, lifestyle, and physical causes

Up to 30% of men under 40 have experienced erection difficulties (Nguyen et al., 2017). In one study, up to 85% of those cases were psychological rather than physical (Nguyen et al., 2017).

That’s true whether COVID-19 is involved or not. Once a COVID-19 infection or long COVID enters the picture, three things tend to be at play: your mental state, your lifestyle, and your physical health. (You can read about the full range of erectile dysfunction causes for more on how these interact outside of COVID specifically.)

Psychological effects

Getting sick, missing work, and worrying about your health all take a toll on mental health. Stress and low mood change your brain chemistry, and that makes it harder to get and keep an erection. This is psychological erectile dysfunction at work, and the stress-erection connection is one of the clearest examples of it.

Relationship strain can add to this. Isolation, financial pressure, or just spending more time cooped up together can create friction that shows up in the bedroom. Add in a bad experience or two with ED, and performance anxiety often follows. That keeps the cycle going even after the illness itself has passed.

Lifestyle effects

COVID-19 and long COVID both make it harder to stay active. Less movement is linked to a higher chance of circulation problems, and your erections depend on healthy blood flow.

Drinking is a common way people cope with stress and disruption. Alcohol interferes with the brain signals that trigger an erection. Different masturbation or porn habits during illness can also shift what your body expects from sex, which adds another layer to sort through during recovery.

Physical effects

The physical mechanism behind ED after COVID is one part researchers are still working out. A small study examined penile tissue from two men who’d had COVID-19 and later needed penile implant surgery. Researchers found SARS-CoV-2 RNA still present in the tissue six to eight months after infection, along with signs of reduced blood vessel function (Kresch et al., 2021).

This is an early, small-scale finding from just two patients. It isn’t proof that this happens to everyone. It’s a plausible physical mechanism, alongside the psychological and lifestyle factors above.

How long it takes to recover

Most post-COVID ED improves within the first few months as the body recovers, though it can take longer for some men.

The numbers below come from a study of 153 men hospitalized with COVID-19 in Thailand, so they reflect a more serious case of the illness than most people have today. That’s also why these percentages read higher than the risk figures earlier in this article, which looked at COVID-19 overall, not just hospitalized cases (Tantiwongse et al., 2022).

That 50.3% figure is still above the general population baseline, so give it time rather than assuming something’s permanently wrong. Being over 40 and having depression during infection were the strongest predictors of ED sticking around past three months (Tantiwongse et al., 2022).

Can COVID-19 vaccines cause erectile dysfunction?

No. The same research on long-COVID ED found no link between how many COVID-19 vaccine doses a man had received and his risk of developing it (Kato et al., 2025).

Is Viagra safe to take if you have COVID-19 or long COVID?

Whether Viagra is safe depends on how sick you are.

Viagra and similar medications can help with a one-off erection. If your ED is a knock-on effect of stress, low mood, or long COVID more broadly, a pill alone won’t address that part of it.

Treatment options for post-COVID erectile dysfunction

Most post-COVID ED gets better as your body and routine recover. Treatment usually means supporting that recovery on two fronts, the psychological side and the lifestyle side, with a doctor involved if physical symptoms persist.

Remember that 85% figure from earlier? Most erection issues, COVID-related or not, come down to psychological factors (Nguyen et al., 2017), which means most of the work happens in your head and your habits, not in a prescription.

This is where Mojo’s Erection Reset comes in.

The program teaches you to work with that system instead of fighting it, so your body can respond the way you want it to.

On the lifestyle side, rebuilding an exercise routine, cutting back on alcohol, and getting consistent sleep all support healthy circulation and hormone levels, both of which affect erections. None of this needs to happen overnight. Small, steady changes tend to stick better than a total overhaul.

When to see a doctor

See a doctor if your ED persists beyond a few weeks, gets worse, or comes with other symptoms, especially if you have cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure or diabetes. A doctor can rule out physical causes that need direct treatment, rather than the psychological and lifestyle factors above.

Here’s what to expect from that conversation, if it feels daunting.

Mojo aims to provide useful wellbeing resources to its users. You should not solely rely on opinions or advice on this site. Always talk to a qualified doctor before making decisions about your health.