CHENNAI: As they shop for toothpaste and sunscreen many people are picking up sex toys from retail outlets as well. For years, people bought vibrators discreetly in the city's grey market or ordered them online. But lately, many take them off the shelves of retail stores or pharmacies. Customers have many reasons to get increasingly adventurous in the bedroom, said sexologist Dr D Narayana Reddy at a seminar on World Sexual Health Day on Sunday. Though a majority of people are just curious, some who don't have partners and others with medical problems pick them up on medical advice. Many of his clients, both men and women, buy sex toys because they have a sexual dysfunction or they have no partners. Increasingly, people with disabilities are also using them on medical advice. "We are all sexual beings," he said. Dr Reddy said that a mother recently brought her 21-year-old son with progressive muscular dystrophy to his clinic, saying he had ejaculated after her hand brushed against his penis. The doctor found that he was often violent but had calmed down after he ejaculated that day. "It was tough to explain the sexual needs of a son to a mother. But I told her that if she bought him an artificial vagina, she would see some behavioural changes. And she did," he said. Many of city's retail shops say they stock sex toys along with condoms. "Customers asked for vibrators and aids. We laughed initially. But then seeing the sales, we realised that they were serious," said Satish Kumar, who works for a retail chain in Anna Nagar . Many customers browse products online and then buy them from the store. "They aren't shy. We see them reading the text on cartons and bringing them to the billing counters," he said Dr Reddy said sex aids aren't new to India. "Dildo shaped objects were found in the archeological ruins of the Harappan civilization. Even the Kamasutra talks about using objects for sexual pleasure," he said.