Stand to attention! Nearly 900 members of Britain's armed forced were prescribed Viagra last year

Almost 900 members of the UK armed forces were prescribed Viagra or similar  drugs for erectile dysfunction treatment last year, new figures show. 

In figures held by the Ministry of Defence, the Army were prescribed the most pills, followed by the Royal Navy and then the Royal Air Force.

Of those,  318 ranking soldiers were given the so-called Pfizer riser, compared with 99 officers. 

In the Royal Navy, of the 232 personnel to be prescribed the treatment, some 56 were officers, while the remaining 179 men were seamen and other ranks. 

The RAF received the lowest number of prescriptions, with 78 officers and 151 men requiring the erectile dysfunction treatment. 

According to the MoD figures, which were released under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, a further 7,189 received prescriptions for anti-depressants while 3,109 required sleeping tablets between January 1 and December 31, 2023. 

The MOD said: 'Viagra can be prescribed for erectile dysfunction, but other similar drugs can be prescribed for benign prostatic hyperplasia or for pulmonary hypertension by a specialist. 

The MoD said service personnel could receive one of 23 drug treatments to tackle erectile dysfunction. 

The document added: 'Please note, it is not possible to determine from the centrally held database whether the medicine was taken by the patient.