Active Ingredient In Viagra Causes Men To See Blue

When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But what does the world look like when your hammer goes limp and you can no longer nail anything? It's a question that has kept countless men up at night, particularly men who can't get it up at night or when they want a little afternoon delight. In 1998, those men found an answer in Viagra. Also known as sildenafil, the drug was originally intended to treat high blood pressure and a cardiac ailment known as angina pectoris, according to History. Viagra proved impotent against angina but basically turned out to be Miracle-Gro for dongs that couldn't rise to the occasion of lovemaking on their own.

Viagra gave a lot of bang for even more bucks. In the first year of hit shelves, the pills sold for $8-$10 a pop and netted about a billion dollars. That money afforded men the ability to swing away with previously flaccid hammers for a good 30 to 60 minutes. That undoubtedly made a lot of men happy and a lot of other men jealous. But it turns out that even a pill that spreads love across the world can leave men feeling blue. In some cases, they even see blue.

Even the most joyous drug can come with unhappy side effects, and Viagra is no exception. Per Healthline,  the "more common" problems include nosebleeds, nausea, vomiting, and a runny nose, and an erection that lasts way too long. 2020 saw an even freakier addition to the list: "intensely blue-colored vision." As Live Science describes, a report published in Frontiers in Neurology documented the ocular ordeal of 17 men in Turkey who experienced vision problems for over 24 hours after using sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.

Not only did their vision have the blues, but in at least some cases it was blurry, and their eyes were sensitive to light. Moreover, those who saw the world through sky-colored lenses suffered red-green colorblindness. Though such reactions are rare, in the unlucky few who do experience them, the side effects can persist for several weeks. The cause of these complications is unclear, so it's better for men to take it slow with Viagra because if you're going to have a ball in bed, you don't want it to be blue.