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Here at BDE Style we have focused over the past few years on truly helping men and partners who have and are experiencing some form of erectile dysfunction figure out the root causes of their performance issues.
Although there are many different types of ED and treating them all can be very different, we strive to provide all the information, tips, and resources you need on the subject based on scientific literature and our personal experiences.
Today we're going to go over the IIEF questionnaire for erectile dysfunction, a self assessment questionnaire that most urologists and men's health clinics use to evaluate sexual health and performance in men.
This isn't something that we've gone into in-depth in the past, but have mentioned it before throughout our blogs and website. But today we want to take a closer look at it and talk about where it came from, what it's used for, and why you should be using it as a self evaluation measurement when considering any treatment for ED.
With that being said, let's start with the basic question, what is the IIEF.
What is The IIEF Questionnaire For Erectile Dysfunction
The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) Questionnaire is a widely used sexual health assessment tool designed to assess and measure the erectile function of patients. It was developed in 1997 by C.R. Rosen and colleagues as part of the Massachusetts Male Aging Study to assess the prevalence, risk factors, and treatments associated with erectile dysfunction in men (aged 40-70 years).
The IIEF consists of 15 questions that are divided into five main domains:
Erectile function
Orgasmic function
Sexual desire
Intercourse satisfaction
Overall satisfaction
The "long form" questionnaire is highly used by medical professionals, for individuals and personal tracking (the most comprehensive).
How Is The IIEF Questionnaire Used?
Each item is rated on a 5-point like scale ranging from 0 “did not attempt intercourse” to 5 “almost always or always”.
0. Did not attempt intercourse
1. Almost never or never
2. A few times
3. Sometimes
4. Most times
5. Almost always or always
Once all questions have been answered on a score of 0-5 for each question, the added up result will give you your results.
Why Is The IIEF Questionnaire An Important Tool For Men With ED
The IIEF is an important tool for evaluating men's sexual health because it not only evaluates erectile functioning but also orgasmic function, sexual desire, intercourse satisfaction and overall satisfaction with sex life. Encompassing all of those can help men better understand and track their ED.
The IIEF questionaire has been proven to have good validity and reliability when used in clinical settings. It has been used to measure outcomes in both clinical trials and non-clinical populations with great success.
For instance, it has been widely used as an assessment to determine patient success with treatment options for erectile dysfunction such as PED5i's, Trimix and even shockwave therapy!
Furthermore, the IIEF can be used to monitor progress over time if you begin treatment for erectile dysfunction or other sexual dysfunction problems such as premature ejaculation or low libido. It helps to provides insight into how well a particular treatment plan is working for a patient based on changes in their scores over time compared to their baseline scores before treatment began.
Additionally, when administered regularly during visits with healthcare providers it can help track a patient’s response to therapies over time or provide insights into how a condition may be progressing which can help inform decisions about potential treatments or interventions that could be beneficial for them moving forward.
Remember how we talked early about the many different types of ED and different treatments for them? This is another reasons why tracking like this is so important.
The IIEF-5 For Erectile Function (Only)
The IIEF-5 is an abridged version of the IIEF (Which is what we we're just talking about), consisting of only five items from the original 15 question questionnaire. It's used in the same way as the IIEF, to more or less measure your level of erectile dysfunction, however it's just a shortened version that only measures the "erectile function" domain.
The options are also changed from a score of 0 "not confident to 5 "confident" in relation to getting an erection.
Most clinics and urologist also use this form, in addition to other questionaires they may or may not have for other evaluations.
For instance, here is an another question of a question/self assessment that is used often in clinics and for monitoring progress with pills or therapies, too.
The EHS (Erection Hardness Score)
The Erection Hardness Score (EHS) is another related measure that assesses the hardness of erections on a 4-point scale from 1 (soft) to 4 (hard). Unlike the IIEF and IIEF-5 which focus on various aspects of erectile function, the EHS focuses solely on assessing erection hardness.
Penis is larger but not hard
Penis is hard but not hard enough for penetration
Penis is hard enough for penetration but not completely hard
Penis is completely hard and fully rigid
Something to keep in mind about the EHS compared to the others is that it depends a lot on the persons subjective feelings. This is because your erection hardness will fluctuate throughout the day (e.g a lack of sleep resulting in poor erection quality that day or stress limiting your erection process). So it's a continuous variable, however it's another helpful question to assess erections along side the IIEF or the abridged IIEF-5 version.
So, you could and probably should, use the EHS along side either the IIEF or the IIEF-5. As this can provide even more helpful information for your erection health throughout and after treatments for your ED.
The Difference Between The Assessments
The main differences between these three different assessments lie in their purpose and scope. While both the IIEF and the IIEF-5 are designed to assess all aspects of male sexual functioning, including erectile function, orgasmic function, sexual desire, etc., the EHS is specifically tailored to measure only one aspect – erection hardness.
Other Reasons Why The IIEF & IIEF-5 Are Important
Something else that we would like to bring up about both the IIEF and the abridged version of it, the IIEF-5 is the importance in studies.
The questionnaire helps improve studies and research, which in turn can help more men not only see success or failure in treatments, but "discover" important findings and correlations for future treatments or modifications of treatment plans.
As an example, this study used the IIEF-5 to compare men with psychological ED vs. organic causes. In the study with over 3000 participants, they found that men with psychological ED had higher scores then those with organic ED.
Take The IIEF Quiz On Our Site!
If you are curious and would like to take the IIEF quiz and keep track of your erection health, we've added the questionnaire right here on our website. We've also made sure to make it super easy and convenient for you guys to use online, rather than having to print it out.
Disclaimer: BDE Style is a professional review site taking part in the discussion about sexual health and wellness. All content and tools are for educational use only and are not meant to be a substitute for professional advice and should not be used for medical diagnosis and/or medical treatment. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own. If you need medical advice, treatment, diagnosis, etc., please contact your doctor, Read more about our policies and disclosures here.
In addition to that, once you take the quiz, we'll send you the results to your email so you can keep track of it and take it as often as you need (depending on the type of treatment, you could potentially retake the quiz after one month, or after 3 months or 6 months from what we have seen in scientific literature so far).
AND every time you take the quiz on our site, it can be sent to your email. Which is perfect for keeping track of your results and for you to do your own compare and contrasting.
Use The IIEF To Monitor Your Progress With Products, Pills, And Other ED Therapies
Whether you're using a penis pump to enhance your erection quality, or you're going on PED5i's like Viagra or Cialis, track your progress with an IIEF to compare and contrast what is considered your baseline versus what your results are after using treatment options like these in the longer term. This way, you can make your own conclusions.
Ready to Improve Your Sexual Performance?
We would also like to point out that, Rich who runs BDEStyle and our community, used the IIEF while doing treatment with the Phoenix Li-ESWT device to keep track of his progress with sexual performance. You can read more about his 2+ year experience with The Phoenix device here.
Although The Phoenix has its very own sexual age quiz to determine if you're a good candidate for Li-ESWT treatment at-home, the more information you have, the better!
Again, these quizzes/questionnaires are not a substitute for a diagnosis as doctors can perform testing (like blood work, dopplers, etc.) and other evaluations. But treat these questionnaires as an additional thing you can do so you can have more intellectual conversations with your doctor for improving your sexual performance.
As mentioned earlier, The Phoenix has its own sexual aging quiz along with the abridged version, the IIEF-5 (coupled together), which anyone considering The Phoenix can take on their website.
If you guys have questions about the IIEF, tracking your sexual performance, or hardness score, either leave a comment down below or send us a private message on the website. We appreciate you!
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