DEMAND for Viagra doubled in the week after Christmas to hit record levels, Superdrug said.
Searches for sex pills on the chemist’s website were twice as high as the week before and frisky Brits bought 13 per cent more than the previous year.
GettyDemand for Viagra at Superdrug doubled in the week after Christmas, data shows[/caption]
Experts suggest people are more adventurous in the bedroom during the festive period.
Ghada Beal, Superdrug’s healthcare director, said: “The first step to getting help is always the hardest.”
More than half of men aged 40 to 70 suffer erectile dysfunction (ED), which makes it difficult to.
It can be a symptom of underlying conditions like high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.
Viagra, known as the “little blue pill”, is a medication used to treat the condition by increasing blood flow to the penis.
Viagra Connect is the over-the-counter version of the drug that contains around half as much sildenafil — the active ingredient in both pills.
Doctors said higher levels of alcohol around the festive period could be behind the rise in demand for both products.
Booze can interfere with the messengers in the brain that tell the penis to fill with blood, increasing the risk of erectile dysfunction.
Medics also suggested people may be having more sex around New Year’s Eve, while men with ED may also want to be taking their health into their own hands this January.
The surge also came on the day the new BBC film Men Up, which is about the first medical trials for the drug that would become Viagra, aired for the first time.
Dr Babak Ashrafi, GP at Superdrug Online Doctor, said the programme may have helped make people with ED feel “less alone” and highlight information they weren’t aware of.
He said: “All of these factors played a part in why we’ve seen a direct increase in erectile dysfunction sales and website searches.”