Judging by the Viagra and Cialis ads on TV, users of these drugs spend their time playing novelty covers of “Viva Las Vegas” in the garage with their buddies or taking baths outdoors with their wives in separate claw-foot tubs. But no, apparently men take these pills so they can have sex, which they’re doing a lot of; oh, and they’re also catching a lot of STDs.

According to a new study done by the brainiacs at Harvard, men on meds for erectile dysfunction are catching diseases from doing the nasty almost three times as much as men not using the drugs.

Researchers looked at the data on health insurance claims for men aged 40 and over. Surprisingly, the spike in STDs among these men didn’t just come in the year after they starting popping the pills, but also in the year leading up to being prescribed the meds. This implies that the careless coitus doesn’t suddenly arise as a result of revitalized rigidity, but that the men taking such medications are more prone to dropping trou in an unsafe manner.

Said one of the researchers:

Younger people have more sex partners than older folks… But per sexual encounter, the actual safeness of the sex is probably lower among older folks in the sense that they don’t use condoms.

According to the Centers for Disease control, the largest portion, 27%, of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases in 2007 came from people aged 40 to 49, with another 13% coming from 50 to 59 year olds.

Says the Harvard doc: “Old folks can contract STDs and we need to be vigilant about it.”

Men on Viagra, Cialis Show Triple Rate of Sex Diseases in Study [BusinessWeek]

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