A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Egypt from November 2015 to June 2016. Sexually active adult men were interviewed by a questionnaire designed by the authors. All the participants were evaluated by the abridged 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF). A total of 3,000 sexually active Egyptian males participated in this study, 946 (31.53%) reported using PDE5Is at least once, and 2054 (68.47%) have never used them. The majority of those who used PDE5Is obtained them for recreational purposes mainly for pleasure (58.35%) and to increase duration/frequency of the intercourse (15.6%). Only 26.05% used PDE5Is to treat ED. The main source of obtaining PDE5Is was friends, relatives and colleagues (62.79%); 25.16% of users obtained the drug by themselves, and 6.66% were prescribed the drug by a pharmacist. Only 5.39% of users obtained the drug after a specialist physician consultation. Sildenafil was the most commonly used PDE5I (90.6%), and most of the users (88.05%) used them in an occasional manner even in the presence of erectile dysfunction, while 11.95% used the drug in a regular manner for every intercourse. PDE5Is are frequently used by the Egyptian male population, and most of them seemed to take them as recreational medications.
Keywords: Egyptian males; patterns of use; phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors; recreational use.
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