If I Stop Drinking Will My ED Go Away?

Many of us enjoy an alcoholic beverage to have fun, celebrate, relax, or even get in the mood. But while a cocktail or two may make you feel more confident and boost your sexual arousal in the moment, excessive alcohol consumption can impact your sexual performance, leading to issues like “whiskey dick” or alcohol-induced erectile dysfunction (ED).

If this sounds familiar, you may be asking yourself, If I stop drinking, will my ED go away?

It just might.

Alcohol-induced erectile dysfunction is a temporary form of ED that occurs under the influence of alcohol. If you drink often and heavily, you may be experiencing the inability to get or maintain an erection more frequently. But does alcohol cause ED forever?

Read on to explore the relationship between chronic alcohol use and sexual dysfunction, including how alcohol affects erections, how quickly you can recover from alcohol-related ED, and other ways you can treat erectile dysfunction from alcohol when lifestyle changes aren’t enough.

To get straight to the point — yes, drinking alcohol can cause erectile dysfunction. If you’ve had a night out on the town with your partner only to later experience a major annoyance at the end of what was supposed to be a romantic night, your alcohol intake could be the culprit.

While research has found that alcohol is linked to riskier sexual behavior and that those who drink are more likely to have sex, the effects of alcohol aren’t good for a man’s sexual performance. To understand the connection between alcoholism and ED, it helps to know how erections work.

A Quick Lesson on How Erections Work

Erections usually begin with either mental or physical stimulation, which triggers a multi-step internal process involving your nervous system and cardiovascular system.

As you feel sexually stimulated, nerves located inside your penis release naturally-occurring chemicals called neurotransmitters that cause blood vessels to relax. When the blood vessels widen, this increases blood flow to the erectile tissue inside your penis causing it to become hard.

How Does Alcohol Affect Erections?

How alcohol affects you sexually can be a serious buzzkill. Here’s what we know:

• Alcohol acts as a depressant. Alcohol slows down your central nervous system, potentially making it more difficult to get and maintain an erection.

• Alcohol also acts as a diuretic. This means it speeds up the process of removing fluids through your renal system, which is why you usually need to pee more often when your alcohol intake is high. By causing you to urinate more often, drinking can lead to dehydration, reducing your total blood volume. Since erections are all about healthy blood flow, this can make it even harder to get and maintain an erection.

• Dehydration causes the body to release a hormone called angiotensin. This hormone increases blood pressure and helps the body retain water. Angiotensin also causes blood vessels to narrow, restricting blood flow and possibly making erections more difficult to achieve.

• Alcohol interferes with your testosterone levels. According to the CDC, excessive alcohol use can impede testicular function and hormone production, resulting in low testosterone levels. Low testosterone is linked to erectile dysfunction, low libido, infertility, and other men’s health issues.

Long story short, heavy alcohol intake could increase your chances of experiencing temporary erectile dysfunction, and alcohol abuse can ultimately affect your health and sex life. But more often, whiskey dick isn’t a sign of long-term erectile dysfunction.

If you’ve been experiencing erectile dysfunction after a night of heavy drinking too often, you might be wondering, If I stop drinking, will my ED go away? How long after quitting drinking does ED go away? Keep reading for insight.

So, you’ve decided to stop drinking to see if your erectile dysfunction will also stop. You may be on to something.

Studies have shown promising results when it comes to recovering erectile function after giving up alcohol.

In a small study of around 100 people quitting alcohol, over 88 percent saw an improvement in erectile function after three months, with 61 percent experiencing resolution of erectile dysfunction.

However, we should note this study was small and limited to a rehabilitation clinic, so more research is needed to apply these findings to the general population. Detoxing from alcohol may depend on how long you’ve been drinking and how often. 

Some research shows that symptoms of withdrawal can start around six hours after your last drink and last up to two weeks for heavy drinkers, if not longer.

If you wouldn’t call yourself a heavy drinker and only experience occasional bouts of ED, they may last only a few hours until you’ve sobered up (and maybe slept it off).

If you still struggle with ED after getting clean, you may want to talk to a healthcare provider. There are several causes of erectile dysfunction, including physical and mental health issues, the use of certain medications or substances, and unhealthy lifestyle habits. Here’s a breakdown:

• Physical causes of ED. Physical causes can include heart disease, high cholesterol, chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity, and habits that affect your physical health, like smoking.

• Psychological causes of ED. Oftentimes, psychological causes are the main reason for ED. Mental health issues can negatively affect your erections, sexual desire, and overall sexual health, including common problems such as depression, stress, and anxiety, including sexual performance anxiety.

• Drug-related ED. We’ve covered how alcohol can cause ED, but certain medications may also be responsible for affecting your erections. Antidepressants, high blood pressure medication, antihistamines, and antiandrogens (medications that reduce the production of male sex hormone levels) are some medications that may cause ED.

The best way to know what’s causing your erectile dysfunction is to talk with a healthcare provider about your symptoms, when and how often you experience ED, any health conditions you have, and medications you’re currently taking.

While quitting alcohol is one way to possibly reduce or stop erectile dysfunction, the initial period after quitting excessive drinking may cause ED.

If you’re a heavy drinker or have an alcohol addiction or alcohol use disorder, there’s a chance you could experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms that cause sexual dysfunction. This includes:

• Tremors

• Insomnia

• Anxiety

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Headaches

• Irritability

• Craving alcohol

Alcohol withdrawal can also cause side effects such as high blood pressure that could potentially interfere with the ability to get an erection.

So, while quitting alcohol may cause short-term symptoms that contribute to ED, it’ll likely improve your sexual health in the long run.

Reducing your alcohol intake or even completely cutting out alcoholic beverages could treat your erectile dysfunction. Still, there are plenty of other natural ways to reduce erectile dysfunction as well:

• Maintain a healthy weight. Having overweight or obesity can affect your ability to get and maintain an erection firm enough for sexual intercourse. Maintaining a healthy body weight through diet and exercise may reduce your risk for ED.

• Watch your blood pressure. High blood pressure can increase your risk for ED, and drinking alcohol can heighten blood pressure. A healthcare provider may recommend consuming less sodium in your diet, reducing alcohol intake, increasing your exercise level, or taking steps to relax to control stress to improve your cardiovascular health and ED.

• Eat a nutritious diet. While a single food won’t magically cure erectile dysfunction, eating a diet full of leafy greens, whole grains, healthy fats, lean protein, and other nutritious foods could reduce ED.

• Start therapy. If you’re using alcohol in an attempt to assuage any performance anxiety, it could be backfiring and causing ED instead. But since mental health is often a cause of erectile dysfunction, talking to a mental health professional (online or in-person) could very well improve your sex life.

There are also proven treatment options, often in the form of medication, if these routes don’t work for you.

The most common erectile dysfunction medications are oral PDE5 inhibitors that increase blood flow to the tissue inside your penis. PDE5 inhibitors include:

• Sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra®)

• Tadalafil (Cialis®)

• Vardenafil (Levitra®)

• Avanafil (Stendra®)

If you’re looking for something more discreet, check out Hims Hard Mints, chewable ED meds that contain the same active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis in customized dosages.

Does alcohol affect erections? Yes. And while it’s a stretch to say quitting alcohol will for sure make your ED go away, it can be a beneficial move that supports your sexual health and overall well-being. Excessive drinking is linked to erectile dysfunction as well as other sexual problems, like premature ejaculation and low sex drive.

If you’ve found yourself experiencing ED one too many times after a night out, you might be wondering, If I stop drinking, will my ED go away? Here’s what we know about quitting alcohol to improve sexual function:

• While alcohol may have a reputation as something that increases sexual desire, drinking too much can seriously impact your sexual performance and even cause erectile dysfunction. Drinking too much slows your central nervous system and impedes blood flow, potentially making it more difficult to get and maintain an erection.

• There’s a good chance your erectile dysfunction could improve when you stop binge drinking, especially if you struggle with alcohol dependence. But erectile dysfunction has many causes, from lifestyle habits  to physical and mental health issues.

• While quitting drinking will certainly have a healthy impact on your sex life, the best way to know what’s causing your erectile dysfunction is to consult with a healthcare provider. Schedule an online consultation to get help narrowing down the possible cause of your ED and finding the right treatment plan. This may include a combination of medications like sildenafil or tadalafil, therapy, and healthy lifestyle changes.

Explore ED treatments from Hims today.