VIAGRA

I came across a Viagra centerfold, in Time Magazine -- yes a centerfold -- a handsome, extra thick, double-page, full-color advertisement.

I tore it out, annoyed by it. I don't want to see it every time I open my magazine.

And I'm offended by those erectile dysfunction ads that start in the morning, and continue throughout every day, every evening -- the tender quietly smiling couple, not young, but not old, and the nice guy with a nice voice selling us the usual promises with the usual IF's and WHEN's to call your doctor.

C'mon, I tell myself -- ads are the price you pay for watching television -- you can turn off the volume, turn off the set, change the channel.

Actually, I think "erectile dysfunction" is brain-washing us.

Kids, (boys and girls), grow up thinking the lovey-dovey business that everyone whispers-chuckles-snickers about, and DOES -- it can't happen, won't happen if you don't take a pill.

Also, what about bad things -- the side effects from using these pills -- how many failures, how many dangerous uses/abuses, how many teens, pre-teens, sexually active kids are addicted to them? And has anyone died from using them?

Are they addictive? If you're using Sildenafil Citrate (that's the ingredient in all of them), do you have to keep taking the pills?

Clinical trials of Sildenafil Citrate were begun in 1992. They involved 3000 men 18 to 87. The drug was patented in 1996, approved for use for erectile dysfunction by the US Food and Drug Administration on March 27, 1998, becoming the first oral treatment approved to treat erectile dysfunction in the United States. (That's when it was offered for sale here as "Viagra.")

A similar drug, Cialis, "Tadalafil," a few years later, was evaluated in clinical trials of 4,000 patients, 27 to 87 years old.

Levitra, "Vardenafil" had clinical trials involving 6,000 men with impotence problems, but no dates or ages were mentioned.

Since Viagra has been used by men since 1998, obviously some guys have been using it for twelve years.

What about side effects? Sleepiness, sleeplessness, and food/sex appetites? What happens to the tissues, to other organs that are affected by using this sort of drug daily?

Remember cigarettes? They were safe. And then slowly, as millions and more millions all over the world took up smoking, very gradually, too late we learned that cigarettes caused cancer.

Aside from the psychological dependency on these potency pills, what about physiological dependency? I looked this up on the Internet, and looked some more -- rephrased my searches and searched some more. The only further clinical trial of Sildenafil Citrate was as a pain reliever for women with Dysmenorrhea, (painful monthly cramps), and that study was never finished.

I couldn't find a sentence, paragraph, or any reference to what happens to you and your potency problem, if you use one of these pills for a while, and thenquit using them.

Am I adding to your worries? I don't want to. There are too many things going on that are scary, unhealthy, life-threatening. (If you've wondered about potency, this link compares various treatments -- http://www.impotence-guide.com/comparison-table.html.)

I'm not planning a Viagra protest. I write posts on subjects that I find myself wondering about, so. if you've ever wondered about it, I'd love to know!