Viagra Use in Heterosexual Relationships: Womens' Perspective

While much is known about the drugs used by men for the treatment of erectile difficulties, there remains a marked lack of knowledge of the experiences of their sexual partners. It appears that little research has looked at the impact on women of the use of Viagra within heterosexual relationships. An interesting qualitative study by Annie Potts and her colleagues in New Zealand has been published in Sociology of Health and Illness in 2003 (Volume 25 Pages 697-719) on this issue. It involved in-depth interviews with 27 women whose partners used Viagra.

The research identified three key issues in those interviews which related to womens’ concerns regarding the use of Viagra by their male partners. They were: the neglect of the woman’s perspectives by those producing and prescribing Viagra; the impact of Viagra use on the nature of relationships and the broader socio-cultural implications of Viagra use. These included the impact of a Viagra culture on the way we understand sexuality in older age, and on our ideas about male and female sexuality. The link with ageing is interesting.

Annie Potts and her colleagues argued that, while previous medically-oriented research on Viagra use has generally assumed that the link between it and penetrative sex within women partners’ perspectives and desires and to the nature of relationships. They also believed that, while the publicity surrounding Viagra may potentially facilitate more positive attitudes to sexuality in older age, it may also produce a societal expectation that ‘healthy’ and ‘normal’ life for older people requires the continuation of energetic sex lives focused on penetrative intercourse.