Loh-Doyle, Jeffrey C, Stephens-Shields, Alisa J, Rolston, Renee et al. · The journal of sexual medicine · 2022 · DOI
This study looked at sexual dysfunction in men with chronic pelvic pain conditions (like prostatitis and bladder pain syndrome), compared to men with other chronic pain conditions (like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia) and healthy men. Researchers found that men with pelvic pain conditions experienced more sexual problems, including difficulty with erections and ejaculation. Depression, stress, pain, and diabetes were linked to these sexual problems across all groups.
ME/CFS is included in this study's positive control group for chronic pain syndromes, providing comparative data on how sexual dysfunction manifests across related chronic conditions. Understanding shared mechanisms of sexual dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome and other overlapping pain syndromes may inform multidisciplinary treatment approaches that address both systemic symptoms and quality-of-life domains often neglected in ME/CFS research.
This cross-sectional design cannot establish causality—it shows associations between factors like depression and sexual dysfunction but cannot prove one causes the other. The study does not specifically isolate ME/CFS as a primary focus; CFS was used only as a comparative control group. The findings about IC/BPS may not be generalizable since only one participant had IC/BPS as their sole diagnosis.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Loh-Doyle, Jeffrey C, Stephens-Shields, Alisa J, Rolston, Renee, Newcomb, Craig, Taple, Bayley, Sutcliffe, Siobhan, et al. (2022). Predictors of Male Sexual Dysfunction in Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome (UCPPS), Other Chronic Pain Syndromes, and Healthy Controls in the Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Research Network.. The journal of sexual medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.08.196
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-loh-doyle-2022-predictors-male,
author = {Loh-Doyle, Jeffrey C and Stephens-Shields, Alisa J and Rolston, Renee and Newcomb, Craig and Taple, Bayley and Sutcliffe, Siobhan and Yang, Claire C and Lai, Henry and Rodriguez, Larissa V},
title = {Predictors of Male Sexual Dysfunction in Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome (UCPPS), Other Chronic Pain Syndromes, and Healthy Controls in the Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Research Network.},
journal = {The journal of sexual medicine},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.08.196},
note = {PubMed: 36180370},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loh-doyle-2022-predictors-male},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loh-doyle-2022-predictors-male
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