There are moments when you find an old medication while organizing a drawer and start to wonder.

A few days ago, while rummaging through a drawer, I found a bottle of Tylenol dated 2019.

It has already been 6 years, and since I occasionally have headaches, I wondered, "Is it okay to take this?"

When I searched online, I found that many people were concerned about the same thing.

Tylenol is often said to be unsafe during pregnancy, and the manufacturer itself is a bit concerning, so I was more cautious.

To get straight to the point, most common medications do not turn toxic immediately after their expiration date.

The main ingredient in Tylenol is known to lose effectiveness over time, but it is very unlikely to turn into a harmful substance.

However, if it has an unusual smell or has changed color, it is safer to just throw it away.

In other words, it feels more accurate to say that the likelihood of it being ineffective is high rather than it becoming toxic.

Interestingly, this isn't just the case with Tylenol; there is another medication that men often find while digging through their drawers.

That would be Viagra. There are many discussions on Reddit about whether taking expired Viagra will still work or if there might be strange side effects.

From what I found, Viagra also tends to lose effectiveness after its expiration date, and its ingredients can become unstable.

Especially since the pill structure is sensitive to moisture and heat, if not stored properly, the active ingredients can degrade.

So, if it doesn't work, it seems more reasonable to just throw it away.

One thing is certain: the expiration date on medications does not indicate that they will become dangerous after that date, but rather that "the effectiveness is guaranteed until this date."

The FDA in the U.S. also states that most medications are safe for a certain period after their expiration date, but effectiveness cannot be guaranteed.

Therefore, what we need to assess is not 'safety' but 'the guarantee of efficacy,' and from this perspective, taking expired medications feels like scratching a lottery ticket.

I ultimately decided to throw away the 2019 Tylenol. It seemed more certain to just buy a new medication than to take a questionable one to save $10.