Citation Nr: 21010477
Decision Date: 02/24/21	Archive Date: 02/24/21

DOCKET NO. 19-23 346
DATE: February 24, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for erectile dysfunction (ED), secondary to service-connected diabetes mellitus, type II (DM), is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty in the United States Army from October 1991 to December 1992.

This appeal was last before the Board in September 2019 when the above captioned issue was denied.  The Veteran then appealed to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Court), and in October 2020, the Court issued a Joint Motion for Partial Remand (JMPR).  In the JMPR, the parties agreed that the VA examination and negative nexus opinion used to deny the Veteran’s claim for ED secondary to DM was inadequate, and that a remand for an addendum opinion was necessary.  The appeal has been returned to the Board for compliance with the JMR, and the Board does so below.  Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268 (1998).

1. Entitlement to service connection for erectile dysfunction (ED), secondary to service-connected diabetes mellitus, type II (DM), is remanded.

As stated above, the parties agreed in the JMPR that the June 2017 VA examination “was inadequate for several reasons,” to include that the examiner applied an incorrect standard for determining whether the Veteran’s service-connected DM was the sole cause of the claimed ED condition, when the correct standard is whether it is proximately due to, or, aggravated by the service connected condition, and whether there is any aggravation of the Veteran’s ED, due to his service-connected DM.  38 C.F.R. § 3.310.  Accordingly, the Board must remand for an adequate medical opinion.

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

Obtain an addendum opinion from an appropriate clinician regarding whether it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran’s erectile dysfunction is proximately due to, or the result of, his service-connected diabetes mellitus, type II (DM) or whether his erectile dysfunction is aggravated beyond its natural progression by his service-connected DM, to include as due to any prescribed medications for his DM.

 

 

T. REYNOLDS

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	L. Nelson

The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.