WHEN IT'S YOUR HEART, NOT YOUR HEAD.

The arteries that supply an erection are narrow. The ones that supply the heart are wider. When arteries start to clog, the narrow ones show it first. That is why an erection problem in a man over forty can be an early warning, often years ahead of chest symptoms.

This is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to let a doctor look at the whole picture: blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, weight, smoking. In most men the news is manageable, and sometimes the thing that fixes the erections is the same thing that protects the heart.

There are signs that mean the conversation should happen in a room, not online. Chest pain or breathlessness when you exert yourself. A heart attack or stroke in the last months. Medicines for angina, which rule out some treatments entirely. If any of these apply, the right doctor is your own GP, today, and not a review at a distance. The Frankly GP checks for exactly this and will say so.

If it is your heart, you want to know. If it is not, you want that ruled out before anything is prescribed. Either way, the GP asks first.