Record numbers of men aged 80 and above, including one aged 102, have been using drugs like Viagra to boost their sex lives in lockdown.
In the last five years, the number of prescriptions for oral pills, such as Viagra and Cialis, which treat erectile dysfunction (ED), has increased by more than 40%.
In 2020, there were more than 180,000 prescriptions for Viagra-type drugs were issued to men in their 80s, while another 5,000 prescriptions were given to men in their 90s in the United Kingdom.
Last year, a 102-year-old man was also one of those many men with a Viagra prescription. He is not alone as in recent years these types of drugs have also been handed out to men aged 99, 100, and 101, according to The Sun.
Overall, in 2020, there were 4.4 million prescriptions for Viagra and other oral ED drugs, costing the National Health Service (NHS) £21.3million.
The figures were slightly low in the year before, but they increased during the pandemic, especially among men aged 80 and above.
Frank Furedi, a Hungarian-Canadian academic and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, said, “I’m not surprised that the number of men over 80 who are using Viagra to maintain a semblance of a sex life is at an all-time high.”
“In a world where just about anything is sexualized old-timers are under unprecedented pressure to keep it up,” he added.
The NHS stats include all prescription drugs given by GPs in England to help men deal with ED. So far, the most popular ED drug is sildenafil citrate, the drug sold under the brand name Viagra. Other ED drugs include tadalafil (Cialis) and vardenafil (Levitra).
ED is the inability to achieve or sustain an erection suitable for sexual intercourse, according to WebMD. Physical causes of ED include chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Psychological causes include depression, stress, and anxiety.
Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra belong to the same class of drugs called PDE5 (phosphodiesterase-5) inhibitors. They work by boosting blood flow to the penile organ so the user can experience a strong erection on sexual stimulation. All oral ED drugs are available under a prescription.
