Fortunately, more and more men of all ages are seeking help, and treatment has advanced rapidly. Helping a patient starts with assessment and it’s here that rating scales play an integral role. This first step is easily done through a questionnaire. The International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) is a reliable and multidimensional scale for assessing sexual function in men. 

As doctors, Raymond Rosen and Allen Seftel explained: “The rationale behind the IIEF was the need to develop a brief, reliable and self-administered measure of erectile function that was cross-culturally valid and psychometrically sound, with the sensitivity and specificity for detecting treatment-related changes in patients with ED.” (Validated questionnaires for assessing sexual dysfunction and BPH/LUTS published in International Journal of Impotence Research, Volume 20)  

However, with 15 questions the full IIEF survey is rather time-consuming to carry out at a busy pharmacy. This is where the abridged 5-item version (IIEF-5) is particularly useful and can quickly and discreetly be completed by the patient. It includes the following questions: 

1. How do you rate your confidence that you could get and keep an erection? 
2. When you had erections with sexual stimulation, how often were your erections hard enough for penetration? 
3. During sexual intercourse, how often were you able to maintain your erection after you had penetrated (entered) your partner? 
4. During sexual intercourse, how difficult was it to maintain your erection to completion of intercourse? 
5. When you attempted sexual intercourse, how often was it satisfactory for you? 

The five multiple-choice questions have answers rated on a scale of 1-5. The IIEF-5 score is the sum of the ordinal responses to the 5 questions: 

22-25: No erectile dysfunction 

17-21: Mild erectile dysfunction 

12-16: Mild to moderate erectile dysfunction 

8-11: Moderate erectile dysfunction 

5-7: Severe erectile dysfunction 

The IIEF-5 also establishes a baseline that can be used to monitor changes related to treatment.