First developed to treat high blood pressure and angina, the pill that put Pfizer on the map was a pure fluke. The researchers did indeed realize that their molecule (sildenafil citrate) ultimately did not increase blood flow to the heart, as hoped, but rather elsewhere… Unhoped for, you say?
The discovery arouses instant enthusiasm. When we know that there is no way to treat erectile dysfunction at the time (except for painful or humiliating treatments, think injections and suppositories in the urethra), we can better measure the enthusiasm. In the first days after the launch, doctors are writing up to 10,000 prescriptions a day, reveals a Time article of the year (1998). In the first two weeks after market, more than 150,000 prescriptions are written in the United States. Between 1998 and 2013 (and the advent of generic pills), an estimated 37 million men used Viagra.
According to the founder and editor of Penthouse magazine, Bob Guccione, Viagra was intended to “unleash men’s libido” and above all pull the rug out from under the feet of feminists, who he believes are responsible for “emasculating the American male”. putting too much pressure on men.
This is the proportion of men over 40 who suffer from “male impotence” at one time or another. While the statistics vary greatly from one study to another, one thing remains: the percentages increase with age.
This is the average time the pill takes to work, lasting four or five hours on average. Note that the pill does not act on the desire, which is also essential (in addition to one form or another of stimulation) for the magic – as they say – to work.
In 2021, US Customs seized US$16.3 million worth of fake little blue pills. Almost ubiquitous fakes online, warn authorities. A counterfeit that does not date from yesterday. Already 25 years ago, just after the marketing of Viagra, fakes designed in Thailand and India were sold at high prices on the Internet. To distinguish them, it is suggested to make sure of the blue of the pill, the f of the Pfizer, the diamond shape, etc. Be that as it may, the experts are unanimous: online, there is a high risk that the pills are fake.
Although it initially targets generally older men with erectile dysfunction, a so-called “recreational” use of Viagra is becoming popular very quickly. A year after its marketing, we can already see its popularity with young partygoers, a phenomenon that worries medical authorities to this day. As early as 2012, an American study estimated that 8% of young people use Viagra and other similar drugs to reassure themselves in their sexual performance.
The news was little publicized, and yet: last year, a study by British Columbia researchers and published in the medical journal Jama Ophthalmology showed that Viagra subscribers were up to 85% more at risk of developing eye problems, such as retinal detachment, the pill affecting blood flow to the eyes. This is the first time that a large epidemiological study has come to such an association.
Israeli and Australian researchers have found that a small concentration of Viagra added to your cut flower water can double the life of your bouquets. It cannot be invented, and it is even demonstrated.
In 2020, a man from La Prairie filed a petition in the National Assembly demanding reimbursement of the blue pill by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec. You should know that Viagra is always on a short exclusion list, just like drugs prescribed for cosmetic purposes or to treat baldness. The case has been “under review” ever since.
The news is not great on this side. In 2015, US authorities approved Addyi, a drug that would help combat low desire in women, renamed “Viagra for women”. The news caused a stir and sparked as much debate as hope. It must be said that sales never took off. Its limited effectiveness and its many side effects, not to mention all its contraindications, are certainly not unrelated to this. New tile: last year, a pharmaceutical company from Quebec (Endoceutics), to which we owe a vaginal ovum (Intrarosa), considered again as a kind of female Viagra to treat vaginal atrophy associated with menopause, declared itself insolvent.
