Viagra will be available over the counter without a prescription in the UK for the first time from today
VIAGRA will be available over the counter without a prescription in the UK for the first time from today.
Men will be able to buy a pack of four pills from a pharmacist for £19.99.
They will be sold exclusively by Boots for two weeks before going on sale in other stores. Boots will also sell them online.
The blue pills will be available to men aged 18 and over, after a consultation with a pharmacist.
Blokes will have to answer questions about their general health, and any other medication they are taking before being sold the drug.
And they will be advised to visit their GP within six months, to check for any underlying conditions that could be contributing to their erectile dysfunction - including diabetes and heart disease.
Dr Geoff Hackett, of the British Society for Sexual Medicine, welcomed the launch.
He said: “It’s great news that these tablets are now available without a prescription.
“It opens up access to men who are either unable, or too embarrassed, to visit their GP.
“Erectile dysfunction wrecks marriages and relationships.
"If you have to wait weeks for a GP appointment after starting a new relationship, it might be over before you've been seen.
"Buying Viagra in a high street chemist is also safer than buying dodgy black market pills online."
Around one in five men suffer from erectile problems, equivalent to 4.3million British men.
MORE ON MEN's HEALTH
But 44 per cent of those aged 40 or older have never sought help.
And 27 per cent of those who did, wish they had been treated sooner, a poll of 1,247 blokes reveals.
Prescriptions of Viagra have tripled in the UK in a decade.
Medics wrote 2,958,199 scripts for the drug in 2016 - up from 1,042,431 in 2006.
And officials seized £17million worth of unlicensed or counterfeit Viagra in 2016.
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