We thank Dr Eggleton for his interest1 in our article,2 and would encourage readers to return to the original article and come to their own conclusions as to what we did, or didn’t, say and where we were quoting other sources. We disagree with the false comparison between the human rights of homosexual or transgender citizens and tolerance of sex robots; the public too have more nuanced concerns.3 Our article attempted to analyse the purported health claims; as it stands, there is an ‘absence of evidence’ that sex robots carry any health benefit. Without evidence to support his assertions, Dr Eggleton’s consultation room anecdotes carry little weight. It is a counsel of despair to suggest that patients with physical and mental issues cannot form sexual relations; recent work suggests men who do buy sex score higher on measures of impersonal sex and hostile masculinity rather than being unable or unattractive.4 We called for further research in this sphere and, until then, merely advised patients and healthcare professionals to exercise caution.