As men get older, they can sometimes have trouble, well . . . getting it up. The little blue pill known as Viagra actually came about due to an accident during a medical trial for a new heart medication. When Pfizer found out their drug would get men erect, they decided to slap a new label on it for a different purpose than it was originally intended. Viagra is considered to be a godsend for men with erectile dysfunction, but of course, all good things come at a price.
According to WebMD, Viagra was linked to at least 522 deaths the first year it was on the market, yet men still continue to use the drug. They would rather choose the health risks than a life without sex. Sometimes, however, the risks that go along with taking Viagra use are arguably far worse than death.
10. Monkey See, Monkey Do
In January 2018, a 27-year old American man named Steve Cho was sitting in Phuket International Airport in Thailand as he waited to board a plane that would take him to South Korea. Maybe he had plans to join the mile-high club when he got on board, because he started taking multiple Viagra pills while he sat in the waiting area. A young man taking Viagra is almost never a good idea. At the very least, it usually results in an erection that will not go down for hours on end.
But these pills didn't just get Cho aroused. He started to lose his mind. He stripped off his clothes and got completely naked. At some point, he started defecating. When security guards tried to restrain him, he threw his poop at them. He was acting so crazy that it took six men to hold him down. Cho eventually snapped out of it. He explained that he took a lot of Viagra and completely blacked out. He doesn't seem to remember the experience, but it was all captured by security cameras.
9. What Did You Say?
Considering that Hugh Hefner lived to be 91 years old, and he always lived with gorgeous women in the Playboy Mansion, it is no surprise at all that he took Viagra for years. This caused him to have sudden sensorineural hearing loss, which apparently happens quite a lot to men who pop the little blue pills like candy. According to some of his former lovers, he was totally deaf in one ear, and the only way he could understand what anyone was saying is if they leaned into his good ear and spoke directly into it.
It turns out that there are at least 47 other cases of men who have gone totally deaf, and they were able to confirm that it was caused by Viagra damaging the inner ear. There were hundreds of other cases of men going deaf while on the pill, but the evidence was inconclusive. Hefner said he'd rather have sex than his hearing; other men might feel the same way.
8. Richard Challen
British married couple Georgina and Richard Challen, 56 and 61, respectively, were having trouble with their marriage, so they decided to take a break from one another and live separately. For years, Richard worked as a car dealer. His friends all called him a ladies' man, even though he was married. This made Georgina jealous, and she could only take the open secret about his infidelity for so long before she began to gather evidence.
Richard could not perform at all without taking a Viagra pill before having sex, so Georgina kept a diary of how many pills were left in the bottle after every time they did the deed. She knew that if there was one less pill than before, it meant he had sex with another woman. Sure enough, after counting the pills, Richard was caught cheating, and they separated.
Despite the Viagra incident, the Challens decided not to get a divorce and to work things out after their separation. In August 2010, just as they were repairing their marriage, Richard called another woman. He brushed her off as "just a friend." Georgina snapped. She picked up a hammer and smashed her husband's head in. Then, she drove one of his sports cars to a cliff, intending to commit suicide. She was caught instead and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison for his murder.
