Viagra

Viagra is a branded medicine from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which contains the active ingredient sildenafil. Original Viagra tablets are diamond-shaped and have a striking blue colour. Sildenafil is used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Erectile dysfunction is when a man has trouble getting an erection or keeping it long enough to have sex. It is also known as erectile dysfunction or impotence. It occurs when insufficient blood flows into the penis, preventing an erection. The incidence of erectile dysfunction increases with age and affects about half of men over 40. But erectile dysfunction can also affect younger men. Some patients always have erection difficulties when they want to have sex, while for others the impotence symptoms only occur occasionally. For both groups, Viagra has proved its worth over the last few decades and has been able to revive the sex lives of many men. When taken orally, the effect of Viagra usually starts within 20 minutes and lasts for about two hours. For Viagra to work, sexual arousal is required. This means that the erection does not occur on its own. The normal dosage is 50 mg of sildenafil and can be reduced to 25 mg or increased up to 100 mg depending on the strength of the effect.

Pfizer discovered the drug rather accidentally in 1989 while looking for a remedy for heart-related chest pain. Viagra was approved for medical use in Germany in 1998. Since the patent expired in 2013, many other drug manufacturers have brought drugs with sildenafil onto the German market as so-called Viagra generics. Since there are hardly any development costs for the producers of the imitations, many Viagra generics are more than half the price of the original preparation. The manufacturers of generic Viagra include HEXAL, Ratiopharm, AbZ and Stada. A dose of original Viagra (50 mg) currently costs about €13, depending on the pack size. In comparison, a dose of Sildenafil 1a (50 mg) costs only about €2, also depending on the pack size. The most common side effects of Viagra and other sildenafil products include headaches, heartburn and skin redness. People with heart and blood vessel conditions should be especially careful and consult their cardiologist about whether it is safe to take. Side effects of sildenafil that occur in individual cases but are serious include prolonged erection, which can lead to long-term damage to the penis, and visual and hearing disturbances. Sildenafil should never be taken by people who take nitrates, such as nitroglycerin (glycerol trinitrate). In Germany, Viagra is available only on prescription. This means that it is not available over-the-counter in pharmacies, but must first be seen by a doctor.