What’s the latest thinking on the possible role of some medications and invasive urological procedures in triggering or aggravating Peyronie’s disease? The link with cystoscopies and other invasive urological procedures was noted in at least one published report?

While some medications (such as beta-blockers for high blood pressure) have been linked to the development of Peyronie’s disease there is really no good medical evidence to prove that this is the case. Indeed, there is some data that suggests that medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cigarette smoking may be risk factors for Peyronie’s disease and therefore medications used in these conditions might be used more commonly in Peyronie’s disease patients. Doctors talk about association rather than causation and it is likely that this is the case for the link between medications and Peyronie’s disease. With regard to the link between procedures such as cystoscopy (the placement of a telescope into the bladder though the urethra), there is a tiny amount of evidence that that this might be related in rare cases. However, causation is difficult to confirm for 3 reasons (i) there are thousands of cystoscopies that are performed annually and yet Peyronie’s disease is relatively uncommon (ii) most Peyronie’s disease plaques occur on the dorsum of the penis and any link between cytoscopy and Peyronie’s disease would result only in a ventral plaque and the latter accounts for less than 10% of all Peyronie’s disease plaques and (iii) only a tiny percentage of men who have ventral plaques have ever been exposed to a cystoscopy or any form of urethral manipulation (such as a urethral catheter placement). Thus, it is possible that such procedures may be associated with Peyronie’s disease but at this time there is little good evidence that cystoscopy or other such procedures or manipulations cause Peyronie’s disease.