The Downside of Taking ED Drugs

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: Is there a downside to oral erection drugs?

Sheldon Marks, MD
Well, the downside to these products is that there are side effects. For example, men that have certain high blood pressure disorders and are taking nitrate medications. If you mix these oral erection drugs with that, you can drop your blood pressure and have a serious complication. This is why men who take Viagra, Levitra and Cialis, if during or after having sex they suddenly have chest pain or a heart attack, they have to tell the paramedics and ER doctors they have this product in their systems. Because one of the first things the doctors will want to do is put nitrates into their blood to stabilize their heart and their blood pressure. The combination can be deadly. There's some visual disorders. One of the big problems is that the drug really isn't being used correctly for many men. They're either not being given enough trials with it, it takes sometimes several doses over a period of time; they'll try it once, it doesn't work and they say it's not going to work and they'll go to something else. The other thing is it's become very recreational. A lot of guys who don't need it are taking it which raises some concerns.

Interviewer
Why?

Sheldon Marks, MD
Because it's almost become the thing to do. You know, you take the drug and you're guaranteed a good erection. Well, if you had good erections before it probably won't help, but it's just kind of a macho kind of a way of just kind of having fun. The other concern is that for most men that have true erectile dysfunction, that's a symptom of something far more serious, whether it's diabetes, hormone problems, metabolic problems, vascular disorders, it's essential that you understand why it is you have erectile dysfunction. Some men get it and that is just the way they are, but you want to make sure that there is nothing serious that you are missing.