NEWS
Little Blue Pills: Viagra Use And Gay Men
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Survey Says: It Depends Who You Ask
Measuring the actual extent of recreational Viagra use among gay men is difficult, though not for lack of trying. Many surveys have been conducted, especially in big cities, but few are scientific because they were designed by researchers with a Viagra-as-villain bias. The most notorious example is a 2004 survey trumpeting that one in six gay men uses Viagra, although the fact that the questions were asked at a sex resort went unmentioned in the many news reports. "It's like going to a Broadway show and concluding that one in six gay men like musical theater," said Gay Men's Health Crisis' Noel Alicea.
More counting has been done in San Francisco's gay community than anywhere else in America, not least because of Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, who has a mission to end Viagra's use as a lifestyle drug. Before his endorsement last week of AFH's lawsuit against Pfizer, Klausner's boldest move had been petitioning the FDA to list the ED drugs as controlled substances, making them easier to track and harder to prescribe. In response, AIDS advocate Jeff Sheehy opined that the STD maven was angling to keep "the dicks of people with HIV in his back pocket—and he wants us to ask him permission to use it." To dramatize what he sees as a conspiracy of commercial, sexual, and moral irresponsibility implicating Pfizer and the city's gay doctors, gay sex establishments, and gay Viagra users, Klausner often recalls how shocked he was on the day in 2002 when he discovered empty sample packages of Viagra on the floors of a local sex club.
A San Francisco study of gay men "in bars and on street corners" in 2001 found that 10 percent had used Viagra—among poz guys, more than 40 percent. By 2005, a phone survey had found that one third of all Frisco homos had recently used Viagra—and that men who had HIV, men who had more sex partners, men who had more unprotected anal sex, and men who took more party drugs (or some or all of the above) were more likely to pop Vitamin V. The largest national study confirmed these general trends. Of some 1,200 gay men interviewed at bars and nightclubs in 10 states in 2005, 11 percent reported recent Viagra use. More than half had used it while on a second party drug. Twice as many had had unprotected anal sex while on Viagra, and rates of HIV infection were significantly higher.
Vroom Vroom: Straight Guys Like It Too
Of course, gay men are by no means the only men playing with Viagra. Straight men in their twenties, thirties, and forties were quick to deploy the drug to deal, as the media put it, with the anxieties of dating a postfeminist wave of demanding women—dubbed the "Samantha complex" in reference to Sex and the City. TV ads began reflecting this new younger face of the exploding Viagra market, abandoning tasteful white-haired couples with slogans like "Let the Dance Begin" for NASCAR drivers declaring, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" and thirtysomething dudes with the brand logo's blue V behind their heads like a pair of devil horns—and the slogan "Get back to mischief!"
When Levitra, made by Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, hit the market in 2003, it seized on sports metaphor for the hard sell, purchasing the most expensive ad time in TV and proceeding to run, during National Football League games, including the Super Bowl, images of a man trying to toss a pigskin through a tire. "When you're in the zone, it's all good," quipped the hip voiceover. (ED ads have since been banned from prime time.) Hot on the heels of Levitra came Cialis, Eli Lilly's extended-version of sildenafil that lasts for up to 36 hours and seemed made to order for sexual bingeing. The pill's street name was The Weekender.
And the street was where more and more PDE5-inhibitors were passing hands, from online pharmacies and local dealers listing in web site classifieds to nightclubs, sex clubs, and college frats. Ravers and circuit queens began supplementing the Ecstasy and Special K—which juiced their all-night dancing but left their penises limp—with Viagra for a reliable morning-after stiffy. "Those of us really close to the street see what's going on," Alan Brown, who runs the Electric Dreams Foundation, a national group that promotes health and safety in gay nightlife, observed in 2001. Viagra, he explained, is a "prolonger," considered a natural companion to the "disinhibitors." These disinhibitor/prolonger combos were packaged and sold under names like Sextasy, Rockin' and Rollin', and Trail Mix.
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Measuring the actual extent of recreational Viagra use among gay men is difficult, though not for lack of trying. Many surveys have been conducted, especially in big cities, but few are scientific because they were designed by researchers with a Viagra-as-villain bias. The most notorious example is a 2004 survey trumpeting that one in six gay men uses Viagra, although the fact that the questions were asked at a sex resort went unmentioned in the many news reports. "It's like going to a Broadway show and concluding that one in six gay men like musical theater," said Gay Men's Health Crisis' Noel Alicea.
More counting has been done in San Francisco's gay community than anywhere else in America, not least because of Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, who has a mission to end Viagra's use as a lifestyle drug. Before his endorsement last week of AFH's lawsuit against Pfizer, Klausner's boldest move had been petitioning the FDA to list the ED drugs as controlled substances, making them easier to track and harder to prescribe. In response, AIDS advocate Jeff Sheehy opined that the STD maven was angling to keep "the dicks of people with HIV in his back pocket—and he wants us to ask him permission to use it." To dramatize what he sees as a conspiracy of commercial, sexual, and moral irresponsibility implicating Pfizer and the city's gay doctors, gay sex establishments, and gay Viagra users, Klausner often recalls how shocked he was on the day in 2002 when he discovered empty sample packages of Viagra on the floors of a local sex club.
A San Francisco study of gay men "in bars and on street corners" in 2001 found that 10 percent had used Viagra—among poz guys, more than 40 percent. By 2005, a phone survey had found that one third of all Frisco homos had recently used Viagra—and that men who had HIV, men who had more sex partners, men who had more unprotected anal sex, and men who took more party drugs (or some or all of the above) were more likely to pop Vitamin V. The largest national study confirmed these general trends. Of some 1,200 gay men interviewed at bars and nightclubs in 10 states in 2005, 11 percent reported recent Viagra use. More than half had used it while on a second party drug. Twice as many had had unprotected anal sex while on Viagra, and rates of HIV infection were significantly higher.
Vroom Vroom: Straight Guys Like It Too
Of course, gay men are by no means the only men playing with Viagra. Straight men in their twenties, thirties, and forties were quick to deploy the drug to deal, as the media put it, with the anxieties of dating a postfeminist wave of demanding women—dubbed the "Samantha complex" in reference to Sex and the City. TV ads began reflecting this new younger face of the exploding Viagra market, abandoning tasteful white-haired couples with slogans like "Let the Dance Begin" for NASCAR drivers declaring, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" and thirtysomething dudes with the brand logo's blue V behind their heads like a pair of devil horns—and the slogan "Get back to mischief!"
When Levitra, made by Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, hit the market in 2003, it seized on sports metaphor for the hard sell, purchasing the most expensive ad time in TV and proceeding to run, during National Football League games, including the Super Bowl, images of a man trying to toss a pigskin through a tire. "When you're in the zone, it's all good," quipped the hip voiceover. (ED ads have since been banned from prime time.) Hot on the heels of Levitra came Cialis, Eli Lilly's extended-version of sildenafil that lasts for up to 36 hours and seemed made to order for sexual bingeing. The pill's street name was The Weekender.
And the street was where more and more PDE5-inhibitors were passing hands, from online pharmacies and local dealers listing in web site classifieds to nightclubs, sex clubs, and college frats. Ravers and circuit queens began supplementing the Ecstasy and Special K—which juiced their all-night dancing but left their penises limp—with Viagra for a reliable morning-after stiffy. "Those of us really close to the street see what's going on," Alan Brown, who runs the Electric Dreams Foundation, a national group that promotes health and safety in gay nightlife, observed in 2001. Viagra, he explained, is a "prolonger," considered a natural companion to the "disinhibitors." These disinhibitor/prolonger combos were packaged and sold under names like Sextasy, Rockin' and Rollin', and Trail Mix.
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4outof6 wrote:
I read this article hoping to find some concrete information about the dangers of recreation viagra use, but instead found typical American sex-phobic pap.
Mar 29 11:52 AM
musclrob wrote:
In response to your article, once again, the heterosexual ruling class is trying to moralize our sexual behaviour. People are their own reason they engage in risky behaviour, not because of any drugs. If anyone pointing the judgemental authoritative finger has bothered to study the biology of the human brain, and look to more rational reasons why anyone, not just gay men, are into risk taking behaviour they would leave the issue of viagra alone. I feel we are constantly made to apologize for who we are and what we do with our body parts--disguised as other issues. All kinds of people, gay and straight abuse viagra. And when one considers the numbers of straights compared to gays there is no doubt in my mind that the amount of straight people abusing this drug is greater--but no one classifies heterosexual casual sex as risky...hmmm. If we as a collective gay consciousness want to reason out why our brothers are engaging in self-destructive behaviour by abusing drugs, sex, etc. then we should have a more intelligent perspective instead of waving the judgemental fairy wand at our brethren. This is what is done to us constantly by heterosexuals. The truth is that this world is not made for people like us, and living in it can become very stressful for some. Without healthy coping mechanisms and social support people reach out for the usual unhealthy coping mechanisms to dissociate from their reality. It is not fair to blame viagra for this behaviour. It is like blaming a car for a bad driver. There are some gay men, like myself, who honestly need this drug. I am not ashamed to admit something like that because I do not moralize my body. As we age this is what can happen. So to encapsulate all gay men as viagra abusers is unfair. There are some of us, believe it or not, that are well adjusted human beings. We live and behave responsibly. We are the ones who constantly have to defend ourselves against this negative stereotyping. If I use a drug like this I use it respons
Feb 13 6:24 PM
lion wrote:
Bollox
its amaizing. and i have done it for 2 years, well i am 33 and my bf 70. sometimes i dont need it and sometimes a half is beta the the whole thing, but in all i think it is needed for our instant society, helps alot. i still get a stiffy without it, maybe even more. yes i think its addictive, but then i know the older people live with tablets all their life and keeps them alive. thats all they can talk of. .... question do you smpke drink or take blue pills, ......everything in excess. he heee
Feb 02 3:17 PM
cuttopman wrote:
I am a healthy in shape 48 year old gay white male. I have been out and practicing 30 years. I have an active social life and drink alcohol. Gave up ciarettes and coffee ten years ago, but am not a fanatic about anything. I do work out a couple times a week. A couple years ago I was playing with a guy 7 years older. He was doing Viagra everytime we played. I tried it. One day he left the whole bottle at my house and I took two. Yes I had a non stop hard on for two days but I felt ill and didn't enjoy it. I returned his script bottle and have abstained from Viagra since totally. I have to be really tired or stressed or both to fail to get hard. I wake with a woody every morning. I will say a not hot partner might not be a turn on but I'll really have to be turned off to try Viagra again. I really feel that America is a nation of hypocondriacs and that running to the doctors for every little complaint is unhealthy. I was raised by an MD and think the best bet at staying happy and healthy is staying away from the medical profession unless you are married or related to one or have a real issue!
Sincerely
BUFU
Still horny in PS
Feb 02 8:21 AM
LocksMan wrote:
Feb 02 6:12 AM
hughb wrote:
Very interesting, I have been thinking to try it! We all want a good stiffy! but am still not sure..it is great to read what appears to me to be a very balanced article.
Feb 01 10:06 AM
italmusclebkn wrote:
This is *my* perspective, that's all. You don't think SSRI use could possibly *cause* problems too? They adjust brain chemistry and behavior (of course the person on them isn't as likely to see that, because. And the article in response to which we're posting these comments is about Viagra, which doesn't specifically target brain chemistry. To paraphrase, neither does viagra fill our jails, and cause people to loose their families, jobs, and bank accounts. The point was about inappropriate use of prescription drugs.
Feb 01 4:13 AM
pauzaojoao wrote:
Antidepressants and antianxiety drugs are every bit as harmful as crystal meth?? While I agree that the article is really well researched, thought out and written, it's a bit hyperbolic (not to mention inaccurate) to equate meth use with benzos and SSRIs. I agree that antidepressant use, in particular, is way out of control. Sleeping pills too. But even they don't ruin lives, fills our jails, and cause folks to lose their friends, families, jobs and bank accounts. A little perspective please!!
Feb 01 3:01 AM
italmusclebkn wrote:
Phenomenal. Finally, a well written article that doesn't sound like it was written by the marketing department of a pharma company.
Of course this is only one facet of a far more prominent issue. Isn't anyone frustrated from meeting guys who are pill poppers in general?
It's become socially acceptable to pop a pill for most any inconvenience in life, even if the challenge is something that until only recently had always been considered a normal part of life. I'm so sick of meeting guys who are dependent on xanax, zoloft, and whatever other drug of choice, that I no longer even ask about the reasons. There is only so many times you can hear the same sob story "but you don't understand, I'd lost my job", "Mom had cancer," "the dog pooped on the carpet all the time." Antidepressants and antianxiety drugs are every bit as harmful as crystal meth, because more people take them and the effects are more insidious. How about an article on that? It would counter the sandblasting of Lexapro and Lunesta ads we're subjected to every time we log onto gay.com.
Jan 31 4:35 AM
peterstrong wrote:
Terrific article!
well done Walter Armstrong!
Jan 31 3:24 AM