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“I have to make sure it's going to work.”
“This way I can last longer.”
“I have to live up to it.”
With precepts like this in mind, more and more Spanish men under the age of 30 entrust themselves to the most obvious solution available: carrying a Viagra in their pocket just in case they have sexual relations.
And this is not necessarily what most worries the majority of urologists, psychologists and sexologists who attest to the phenomenon.
The worst thing is the fact that most of these young people take the pill in party contexts, where alcohol increases the chances of erectile dysfunction.
Many take the sildenafil pill to feel safe and the greatest danger, they warn, is getting hooked.
Addiction can lead to anxiety, depression and, in very extreme cases, even suicide: depending on this drug can destroy your sex life.
The story is almost totemic: “I go out to party, drink alcohol or do something and then I'm afraid of not performing at my best if I end up flirting.
Once, at a club having a few drinks, I was with a girl and she wouldn't get up.
The fatal pass.
“I felt embarrassed and insecure.”
It is the reconstruction of countless stories heard in the consultations of professionals who have participated in this report such as Ricardo Fandiño, psychologist at ASEIA and Vanessa R. Pousada, Vice President of the Sociedade Galega de Sexoloxía.
The most common phrases: “I don't like to fail when I go with an aunt”;
“I always take a couple of Viagras just in case”;
“I have ever used them to last longer”;
“You look like a champion” or “Even though I don't have relationships, it makes me feel more secure.”
More information
Viagra, the blue pill that turned a midnight taboo into an after-dinner conversation
Viagra cannot be purchased without a prescription, but these experts point out that it is being purchased on the black market or with false documents.
The price helps.
In a pharmacy, a generic 50 mg pill (there are up to 200) usually costs about 4 euros in blister packs of 10 units, or less than 50 cents per tablet in packs of 360. On the street, each pill costs between five and ten euros.
The director of the Medicines Observatory of the Business Federation of Spanish Pharmacists (FEFE), Enrique Granda, estimates, urged by ICON (the data has not yet been published), the number of units of erectile dysfunction products sold overall is four million. of the State in 2022: 7% more than in 2021. According to various studies and market data, about one in four Viagras is consumed by a man between 16 and 30 years old.
A blister pack of Viagra.
Although you cannot buy the medication without a prescription, you can easily buy it on the black marketGetty Images
Those consulted indicate that, although an increase in erectile dysfunction among young people cannot be ruled out, these data point to an increase in the recreational use of Viagra.
And they are concerned that the number of young people who come to consultation with problems derived from drug abuse or even addiction is growing.
We are talking about a medicine associated, since its launch in 1998, with those who are older.
“Taking Viagra does not depend on age.
The problem is self-medication, especially when it can cause you to get sick,” says Nayara Malnero, psychologist and sexologist.
With the increase in consumption of the pill, she says, young people “end up becoming mentally conditioned and feel that they need it more and more.
It is a distortion about the functioning of the body and our sexuality in general.”
“It is already pathological,” says the writer of
Experiencing
(Planet) and disseminator on networks, where she has more than 100,000 followers.
Regarding the consequence of consumption at times of celebration, she reproaches: “Monday comes, there is no pill, and you can't have relationships because the body gets used to it.
“It’s more mental than physical.”
In a night where drug use fuels sexual desire, but makes it difficult to consummate, sildenafil and other drugs give a certain impetus to the affected members.
“Viagra makes it easier to have an erection and allows you to have up to several intercourse with penetration.
It is used as insurance to perform,” urologist François Peinado Ibarra, also a surgeon and andrologist, explains by phone.
Viagra thus becomes, dangerously according to experts, another recreational drug, a stimulant.
“They trivialize consumption.
They look for sexual performance and believe that it will help them,” says Ricardo Fandiño, psychologist at ASEIA, a Galician association for emotional health in childhood and adolescence.
But “they are far from guaranteeing that the encounter will be pleasant.”
The massive use of Viagra by young people is turning it into another recreational drug.
In this photo, a bullet man is stretched in a circus in the Bronx in 1929.Getty Images
These notes refer to sex focused on penetration.
But caresses, kisses, massages... are also sex.
The conception of practicing intercourse under the binomial penis-vagina or penis-anus is misleading, those interviewed recall.
“It is an openly phallocentric perception of sexuality oriented toward an ideal of performance,” recalls Fandiño.
And he points in a clear direction: “There is a fear of failure that comes to question masculinity.”
“The fault is not with the young people, it is with the educational system, families and politics,” says Malnero, for his part.
“No one explains anything to them about sex and, at the click of a button and in a few seconds, they have all the porn they want.
In the absence of cross-checking information, how can you not believe that porn fiction is a lie? ”He asks.
The Pornhub and xvideos portals were among the 20 most visited pages in Spain in 2023, behind giants such as Google, YouTube or Facebook.
And the problem doesn't just come from pornography.
Fandiño points out “series, movies, books or even songs.”
“Young people aspire to an ideal that determines success or failure in relationships,” he asserts.
“They are inexperienced, they are full of doubts, but in sex they have to succeed, always through penetration.
That's why they think that the use of Viagra can help them in that effort."
“Many even compete with each other,” says Dr. François Peinado.
He sees a generational issue in the supposed increase in spontaneous and sporadic sexual relations.
“Now, by being more random, we want them to be more intense and give their maximum.
It is a self-demand that increases the possibility of erectile dysfunction,” he argues.
Peinado calls for greater empathy: “We must normalize that nothing happens if one does not always have an erect penis and create an environment of trust, pleasantness, without pressure.
It's about enjoying, not being successful."
If conceiving sex around penetration is a mistake, how can young people consider their sexual relationships?
“Deconstructing the social conception and exploring other ways of arousal,” responds Nayara Malnero, who adds that “nothing happens” if sex is not practiced for a day or there is no penetration.
“We are missing out on a lot of other pleasure points by focusing on just one model.”
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