It may be difficult to remember a time before the little blue pills, with all their jokes and effects they've had on modern sex as we know it. In fact, they have only been around for a decade.
Viagra (sildenafil) is not the only medical “impotence drug” on the market, but it was the first and as such made a colossal impact on our sex-obsessed society and has achieved legendary status.
The chemical compound of sildenafil was discovered, somewhat surreptitiously, to be an effective drug for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, during testing of the mother compound as a blood pressure medication. Pfizer, the developer, could not overlook the huge market desperate for treatment of sexual functional disorders and thus a drug was born. It received FDA approval in March 1998.
The process of developing and approving sildenafil for use by men took about a decade. In 1996, Pfizer began testing sildenafil on women but many invested years into the process, it was called off because of the complexity of proving its effectiveness in females. Although there are clinical and anecdotal reports of its use on women suffering from some forms of sexual dysfunction, there is no official approved regime for women because the FDA has not approved such use. Various competitors are currently testing candidate drugs on females.
The effect of one Viagra pill lasts about 4 hours. This does not mean that the user will walk around with a huge erection for the duration, but that from about half an hour after a man takes a pill, he will be able to achieve a relatively strong erection following sexual stimulation, be it mental or physical. After ejaculation, or a significant decrease in stimulation, the erection will recede, just like it happens naturally.
The family of erectile dysfunction drugs was extended in mid-2003 when Levitra was approved and hit the market. Levitra (vardenafil) which is manufactured by Bayer, was an important addition because it offered some competition to start bringing down the rather inflated prices, but its medical action is quite similar to that of Viagra. It begins to take effect about 30 minutes after being ingested and lasts for about 5 hours, just slightly longer than Viagra, on average.
Cialis (tadalafil) by Eli Lilly and Co. entered the party in late-2003. It earned the nickname of “the weekend pill” because its effect lasts for as long as 36 hours. Again, this does not mean that sexual arousal will be constant during this time, but rather erection will be possible following stimulation. It goes into action only 15 minutes after being swallowed. Some may see this as a major selling-point; other may understand this to be their loss because there is that much less time for foreplay.
The important impact that Viagra, Levitra, Cialis and others have had on sexual behaviour is not due to their use as impotence drugs, for men with real erectile problems, as they were originally intended, but because their effect goes so far beyond that. Men without chronic erectile dysfunction (such as the inability to achieve erection or the inability to sustain erection) have discovered that they can enjoy the effect of these drugs to strengthen their erections and increase the potential frequency for sexual pleasure.
Such pill-driven sex begs many relevant questions such as how central intercourse is in one's sex life, whether both partners want and enjoy this change equally and if this act of “turning back time” might necessitate adaptation on the women's part, since her body and sexual preferences could have adapted to the conditions of the sexual relationship prior to the pills.
Although these drugs or cheap copies of them are widely available online or through backstreet channels, they should never be taken without a physicians approval because they can have dangerous side effects and under certain conditions (like heart disease) they can be fatal.
|
Product reviews
Articles
My Blog
.gif){kind=small}
| Contact us