ArticleAndrology2025
Is 'living apart together' a real advantage for patients consulting for sexual dysfunction? A cohort study.
Article in Andrology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Women's experiences of a medically supervised fasting intervention for infertility: a qualitative study.BMC women's health · 2026Trial
- Positive demography: changing the perspective on population aging from the Age-It Research Program.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025Article
- Is 'living apart together' a real advantage for patients consulting for sexual dysfunction? A cohort study.Andrology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundQuantitative research on families has introduced a new category of relationship called living apart together, that is, when a couple in a committed relationship live in separate homes. This study aimed to confirm whether living apart together improves sexual relationships in those suffering from sexual dysfunction.
methodsThis study comprised cross-sectional (N = 4852) and longitudinal (N = 1402) analyses. The former explored psychobiological, hormonal and relational correlates using the Structured Interview on Erectile Dysfunction scale. The latter assessed the occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events in a subset of patients followed for 4.3 ± 2.59 years.
resultsCompared to cohabiting couples, patients in living apart together relationships were younger and characterised by higher education levels, healthier lifestyles and lower comorbidity burdens (all p < 0.001). After adjusting for those confounders, the living apart together group reported better sexual functioning, more frequent sexual intercourse, and higher total testosterone levels (p < 0.001), and the relationship was often a source of conflicts within the familial context and of shorter duration (all p < 0.05). When total testosterone was included in a fully adjusted analysis of covariance, the difference in obtaining a full erection between cohabiting and living apart together relationships became non-significant (p = 0.086), suggesting a hormonal influence on erectile dysfunction. In the longitudinal analysis, Cox models adjusted for the aforementioned confounders showed that living apart together relationships are associated with a twofold greater risk of major adverse cardiovascular events than cohabiting relationships, independent of other risk factors, including total testosterone levels, waist circumference and pathological penile blood flow. DISCUSSION: This study illustrates that partnership arrangements can shape sexual interest and complaints, as reported by the participants. While men involved in living apart together relationships show an ostensibly healthier phenotype, they experienced more often major adverse cardiovascular events. Therefore, co-residential relationship appears to provide more effective protection against future major adverse cardiovascular events for the male partner than a living apart together relationship.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.