Adherence to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in men with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and erectile dysfunction (ED) significantly improves erections and sexual desire, a randomized sham-controlled study has found.

This finding should motivate men with both ED and OSA — a common co-occurrence — to use their prescribed CPAP machine nightly, principal investigator Kerri Melehan, MAppSci, a doctoral student in Sydney, Australia, told Medscape Medical News.

“If sex sells it at the end of the day and gets more men to use their CPAP, that’s great,” said Melehan, a sleep researcher at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where the study took place. She presented the results last week in a poster at ICE/ENDO 2014.