Viagra: Helping relationships or destroying them?
Viagra is the wonder drug that has brought smiles to millions of faces. Viagra became the first oral pill for impotence when it was introduced in America more than 10 years ago, helping to revitalise flagging male confidence, repair broken relationships and also making erectile dysfunction (ED) an acceptable conversation in a dinner party.
Originating from a humble background in the Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in Ringaskiddy, County Cork, Viagra tablets became the fastest-selling drug in medical history, crossing countless bedrooms across the globe.
At present, approximately 30 million men in more than 100 countries take the ubiquitous diamond-shaped blue pills and statistics shows that nine tablets are being prescribed by doctors every second. In addition, millions of men turned to the internet where a thriving black-market industry sells poor copies of the drugs.
Coined from the "vigour of Niagara", Viagra tablets were accidentally discovered in the 1990s by scientists in England looking for a way to control high blood pressure.
The scientists soon suspected that something was happening when the test patients taking sildenafil citrate – the main ingredient in Viagra – refused to return their test pills.
According to Dr Brian Klee, senior medical director at Pfizer, "We discovered during those trials that people didn't want to return the medication because of the side-effect of having erections that were harder, firmer and longer-lasting."
As a result, Pfizer scientists began to explore the serendipitous realisation of the side-effect of the drug on men suffering from erectile dysfunction, and in 1998 became positive enough to release the drug on the ED market.
According to experts, the result has been a medical revolution only bested by the introduction of the contraceptive pills in the 1960s.
Dr Judy Kuriansky, a celebrated New York psychologist and sex therapist – generally known by her sex talk-show radio fans as Doctor Judy — and author of The Complete Idiots Guide to A Healthy Relationship, told the Irish Independent, "Viagra has brought about a revolution in the discussion of sex in our mainstream culture."
She added, "And it has changed completely the landscape of sex and its therapy, and especially, for us sex therapists, to be able to provide a solution," she told the Irish Independent.
Before the advent of Viagra, which works by enhancing the flow of blood to the corpus cavernosum of the penis, cruder methods had been used to treat impotency. Common therapies available then include injection of drugs directly into the penis and insertion of penile implants.
The introduction of Viagra means that patients can now merely have to pop the little blue pill – optimally on an empty stomach – wait an hour and then enjoy the results, which may last up to four hours. For couples who have been struggling to maintain a happy relationship due to the disappointment of impotency, Viagra couldn’t have come at a better time.
Doctor Judy especially remembers one young couple, both in their thirties, who had come to seek her help because the husband could not maintain an erection.
Doctor Judy said, "It was virtually the end of their relationship."
"The man felt Viagra was for the old and the he was he was too young to use the wonder drug."
"To get the man to take the drug was quite difficult, but Viagra tablets really saved their marriage."
However, the story hasn’t been all that smooth-sailing for all couples. The newfound vigour that Viagra brings may not always end up achieving the desired effect. Doctor Judy told of an incident about a woman who approached her after the woman’s fifty-something husband decided to try Viagra.
"Once he was able to start performing, he got such an elated feeling of being a stud, that he went out and started trying out his new confidence with other women," Doctor Judy said.
