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Loyola psychiatrist Renshaw offers the instructive example of a couple who came to see her the day after the man had taken Viagra for the first time: "They went to bed to wait for something to happen and fell asleep while they were waiting. They forgot to have foreplay. They expected an instant erection." The next night, after Renshaw gently reminded them about the importance of stimulation, they had intercourse for the first time in three years.
During the drug's clinical trials, which as a rule tend to have rosier outcomes than real life, Pfizer reported a 60%-to-80% success rate, depending on the dosage (compared with a 24% success rate for placebos). The anecdotal evidence is even more compelling, if one can put up with a certain amount of crowing. Earl Macklin, a 59-year-old security guard in Chicago, has suffered from impotence on and off for 10 years as a result of diabetes. The first two times he tried Viagra, it produced minimal results; the third time he was able to have intercourse with his girlfriend for the first time in their four-month relationship. "I've been using it every day since then," he says (four days later) with a conspiratorial chuckle. "It makes me feel like I'm in my 30s again." Macklin's insurance company has notified him that it won't be reimbursing him, so, he says, "I'll limit myself to 20 pills a month."
Tom Cannata, a 43-year-old accountant from Springfield, Mass., has been taking Viagra for the past three years as a trial subject. He was suffering from partial impotence brought on, he believes, by years of bicycle riding (an activity, it should be noted, that is not universally held to be a cause of impotence). Cannata was able to achieve erections but felt that they "should have been stronger and much longer-lasting." Viagra worked for him the first time and has worked ever since. "Not only is the frequency of our sex greater," he says, "but for me it is much more intense than it was without the medication. The quality is so much better. Much firmer, stronger erections. And the orgasm is much more explosive." So pleased has Cannata been with the results that he was inspired, he says, to go out and buy a sports car not long after beginning the drug--indicating, perhaps, a soon-to-boom, Viagra-inspired market for souped-up cars, Aramis, oversize stereo equipment and other accoutrements of the virile life-style.
Some patients TIME queried had no reaction to Viagra whatsoever. Others have had more ambiguous experiences. Consider Irving Mesher, a 73-year-old retired New York City firefighter, who currently lives at a family-owned nudist resort in Pennsylvania's Pocono mountains. He describes himself as "sexually motivated" and "very active." Thanks to injection therapies (prostate-cancer treatments six years ago left him "semihard"), he has been having sex--by his account--as often as three or four times a week with several girlfriends in their 20s. Still, he was eager to try Viagra. Taking a 50-mg dose the first time, he was pleased with the results: "About as hard as it can get." However, a subsequent experiment with a 100-mg pill backfired, having no beneficial effect, as did a return to 50 mg. Mesher nevertheless plans to continue with Viagra, inspired, perhaps, by the example of his 70-year-old best friend Frank, who took the drug last week and "turned into a monster." The two are planning to invite several friends to a Viagra party.