It can be avoided no longer. There is no way that a column aimed chiefly at people in middle years and beyond can avoid mention of it. It's time it was discussed. So here we go - hopefully, in the best possible taste. Viagra, I mean. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.

This pill, which can apparently transform jaded sex lives by restoring the ability to men who have lost it, is due to become available in this country in September. It's an event which, I gather, is being awaited with mixed feelings among the population.

The Americans have already gone down this path so there are their experiences to learn from. Viagra, it seems, just possibly can seriously damage your health. In the US, 16 men have died after taking it and turning themselves into sexual athletes.

But the manufacturers point out that they were men with heart problems anyway, or who had been mixing Viagra with other medication. And 16 out of the many thousands who have rushed to use this "wonder pill" is hardly grounds for a panic.

For the rest, it seems the worst that can happen (if there are any side-effects at all) is a flushed face and a headache - the former likely to alarm a partner and the latter surely rather defeating the object of the exercise.

All around Britain earnest debates will currently be taking place. Sometimes these will be between couples as they try to decide their joint attitude to the availability of a drug which, in the space of a mere half-hour, can turn men back into the stud they once believed themselves to be.

Do they really want to complicate their lives again with an aspect of it that they have learned to live without? Or should they welcome the chance to restore something which gave them a lot of pleasure?

Men unsure of their partners' reaction to the effects of the drug will be wondering whether to go ahead anyway, hoping that they can win them over and fantasising about venturing out on to the open market if they can't, to find a new mate who will appreciate their restored prowess.

Some women will be looking forward to their husband/partner being able to deliver the goods once more after years of disappointment; others will be sighing because they thought they were safely past all that sort of thing and into calmer, libido-free waters.

An important question for men will be how to approach the matter with their family doctor - and to ensure that the GP they see when they arrive at the surgery is a man! And then there's the question of which chemist to go to with the prescription. After all, you don't want the whole district to know, do you? Well, perhaps some do. Show-offs!

Viagra will bring with it all manner of personal and social complications. It opens up new territory for a society which has generally accepted that a man's sexual ability declines with age. From September, in Britain as already elsewhere, that need not necessarily be the case.

The nation will be able to rise to the occasion. But will it want to? And will people want to hear time and again the Viagra version of the old joke? You know the one...

"Dear Judith,

Sorry I've been such a long time replying to your letter. Since Peter discovered Viagra there's been no stopping him - morning, noon, and night, night, night. It was quite exciting at first, and it's certainly better than the way things used to be. But you can have too much of a good thing. And it doesn't half interfere with the housework. Must go now. Lots to do.

Love, Jennifer.

P.S. Please excuse the wobbly writing."

What do you think about Viagra? Email us at bradford.editorial@newsquest.co.uk

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