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When I was growing up, my parents and other adults took up the challenge of trying to educate me in the ways of sex. It was dangerous work, but someone had to do it. One of the first pieces of advice that stuck concerned the activity of masturbation. Although no-one would give me a demonstration of what this thing was, I was led to understand that too much of it and I would go blind. Naturally, being of a stubborn disposition, I decided to keep the activity going, hoping I was only risking one eye. This is a classic use of fear and guilt to encourage people to modify their behavior. It came alongside a similar warning that watching too much television was also bad for my eyesight. Apparently, the cathode ray tube gave off radiation that would rot the lenses and turn my retinas to jelly. Or was it that my retinas were a kind of jelly and, as with a microwave, they would be cooked and stop admitting light. The details are hazy but the message was clear. The combination of television and sex were bad for the eyesight.

Coming forward to the new century and the FDA began to receive reports through the post-marketing monitoring program that some men were experiencing problems with their eyesight when using the little blue pills. Because they were blue pills, the men claimed their vision was tinged with blue and sometimes blurry. Actually, I made that up. The men made no such claim but their vision was tinged with blue. The reason was that PDE6 changes the way the retina works and the little blue pills are designed to affect PDE5 which is in the penis. Unfortunately, the pill is not always specific, what with sex and eyes being so closely connected.

At first, this was not thought to be a serious problem but it became so when one or two men reported actual vision loss. In a billion dollar US market, the notion that men may go blind is dangerous to future sales, so an immediate new clinical trial was ordered. Well, men can relax again (except after taking the pill, of course). This October has seen the publication of the report from a six month trial. In a double-blind, randomized trial, two-thirds of the participants took the real drug and one-third took a placebo. At the end of six months, there was no measurable difference in the eyesight of the participants in both groups. Allowing for natural ageing, their eyesight was unchanged from start to finish.

It’s a little ironic after all these years to see real panic at the notion that too much sex using viagra will make you go blind. My parents would have appreciated the temporary support to their own threats relating to masturbation. Although I do admit to having to wear spectacles these days, I am no different from the millions of older men. We Boomers wear our fading eyesight with pride. Despite all the sex over the years, we have managed to make it this far with only minor short-sightedness. With a little help from viagra when our muscles tire, we can expect to enjoy many more years of sex (or, at least, we can all risk one eye with that aim in mind).