Revealed: Erection pills such as Viagra and Cialis have been linked to over 200 ... trends now
Popular erection pills such as Viagra and Cialis have been linked to more than 200 deaths in Britain, MailOnline can reveal.
None of the fatalities — all of which have occurred since 1998 — are proven to have been caused directly by the drugs.
But the UK's drugs watchdog is aware of the link. However, experts insist the drugs are considered safe and many incidents could in-fact reflect deaths linked to sex.
Men can buy sildenafil, Viagra's main ingredient, and other impotence pills over the counter for as little as £15 and tablets available online for as little as £1.30 per pill.
Any reported suspected side effects are logged under the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) 'Yellow Card' scheme.
Officials use the same database, set-up in the wake of the 60s thalidomide scandal, to track the safety of Covid vaccines.
Although impossible to prove, it allows doctors, pharmacists and patients to report adverse reactions believed to be caused by drugs used in Britain.
This can lead to them being reviewed, having warnings added to the labels or being taken off the market completely.
MailOnline found 2,441 reports for sildenafil, tadalafil (branded as Cialis), vardenafil (Levitra) and avanafil (Spedra) in the MHRA database.
Of these, 1,600 were for serious reactions, but only sildenafil and tadalafil recorded any fatalities (205, in total).
Most of the reported deaths were linked to incidents involving the heart or the brain
Forty-five deaths were reported in women, even though they don't gain the same sexual arousal benefits as men.
Such medications also, less famously, treat pulmonary hypertension, a type of high blood pressure in the arteries that supply the lungs.
The same mechanism by which the drugs increase blood flow to the penis also relaxes blood vessels in the chest to treat pulmonary hypertension, hence why some women and children might take it.
Overall, people in their 60s accounted for the highest number of reported fatalities (66), nearly a third of the total.
For deaths with a stated cause, the majority related to disorders of the arteries that supply the heart, with 50 such deaths.
Most of these (31) were specifically linked to heart attacks.
Another large category for reported deaths was nervous system disorders, with 18 fatalities.
The majority of these related to cerebral haemorrhages — bleeds caused by blood vessels rupturing in the brain which can trigger strokes, a known rare potential side effect of the drugs.
Mental health issues were also reported in relation to the medications, including five cases of suicide.
Other less serious adverse reactions were also reported.
A total of 57 Brits reported suffering diarrhoea after taking the medications. Another eight reported an unusual level of flatulence.
Sildenafil, Viagra's main ingredient, is used to treat both impotency as well pulmonary hypertension. Pictured here is the Viagra branded version
Cialis, the active ingredient of which is the drug tadalafil is another popular erectile dysfunction medication in the UK
Four reported hallucinations, with one experiencing an unusual state of euphoria.
Some (37) ironically reported having increased, spontaneous or painful erections as an unwanted side effect.
These are, most likely, people taking the medications for non-impotency related reasons and to whom the drugs' other purpose may have come as a surprise.
However, some Brits found the opposite effect, with over a dozen reports that taking the pills decreased in their libido or ability to get erections.
Millions of British men now take drugs to help impotency.
The latest NHS backed data shows 22million prescriptions for these drugs were handed out by GPs in England between 2019 and 2023, at the cost of £91million.
This data doesn't cover over the counter purchases, with many high street pharmacies, as well as online shops, now selling their own brand versions.
As such the 205 reported deaths represent a tiny
