The Board remands the claim for an addendum opinion to properly address secondary service connection pursuant to Spicer v. McDonough, 61 F.4th 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2023).
The deciding factor: The October 2025 VA examiner utilized an incorrect standard of proof for secondary service connection and did not adhere to the September 2025 remand directives.
- Claimed conditions
- erectile dysfunction (claimed as impotency)
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 1, 2025
- Citation
- 25014348
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 793 · Granted: 28% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 25014348.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for diabetes and its associated complications, as well as erectile dysfunction and diabetic nephropathy, finding no evidence of herbicide exposure in Panama that would warrant a presumption of service connection.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that further development is needed to determine the etiology of the Veteran's conditions, including prostate cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus type II, erectile dysfunction (claimed as impotency), and total left knee replacement. The claims are being remanded for additional development.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's headaches are at least as likely as not caused by his service-connected traumatic brain injury, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for hypertension and peripheral neuropathy of the bilateral upper and lower extremities due to insufficient medical opinions regarding their etiology.
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