Chronic myeloid leukemia with sleep-related painful erections as a first symptom: a case report

Abstract

Abstract Background Sleep-related painful erections are characterized by deep penile pain that occurs during erections in the rapid eye movement stage of sleep. Case presentation This case presents a 43-year-old Chinese Han patient with sleep-related painful erections. Turgid painful erections (4–5 episodes of tumescence) during the sleep hours caused pain. Further, blood testing revealed an abnormal increase in white blood cells (123 × 109/L). The patient was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia by bone marrow biopsy, BCR::ABL1 fusion gene testing, and Philadelphia chromosome. However, the sleep-related painful erections have dramatically decreased in frequency of erectile pain after chemotherapy for Chronic myeloid leukemia in our case. Conclusion We considered that the occurrence of sleep-related painful erections was related to chronic myeloid leukemia and the case might be secondary sleep-related painful erections.