Article by: Dr Zoe Arugay
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Viagra tablets Photo: Newscom |
My guess is it has something to do with their vigor for life than with the actual medication. As a result - reckless, wild nights, and getting more susceptible to STD's.
And that's what researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Southern California explain, too. They say the the fault lies not with the drugs but rather the high risk behaviors of the men who request them.
Their research is said to be the first to examine the relationship between ED drugs and STD risk in a large, representative sample of privately insured older men. The researchers had no way of knowing how many of the men were bisexual vs. homosexual.
The study was published in the July 6 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Yes, Annals. Let's get over it now, shall we?
The study author, Dr. Anupam B. Jena, an internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General, explains that their findings propose that men who had been prescribed an ED drug were two to three times more likely than non-users to have sexually transmitted diseases, and this was true both in the year before and after the first prescription was filled. The most frequently reported STD was HIV/AIDS, followed by chlamydia.
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They speculate that the reason why HIV/AIDS was the most frequently reported STD was that "the symptoms that are associated with a primary HIV infection are the kinds of things that make men more likely to show up to a doctor, rather than go to a free clinic where they know they can get tested for an STD anonymously."
An earlier study has found that men over 50 are less likely to use a condom than their juniors. This confirms that men who use viagra are not only those who have erectile dysfunction, but also those who are in high risk groups who take it to enhance sexual activity.
And so it goes that it is the behavior that is causing STD's, not the medication. (Behavior makes and interesting appearance as a confounding variable.)
The lesson here? Routine STD screening should be done unless patients are always using condoms or are in mutually monogamous relationships.
There is a difference between being out there all the time and being sexually active in a monogamous relationship... or was it Megan Fox who earlier said something similar?
