Viagra and Blood Pressure: What You Should Know

When you have more than one health condition, things start to get complicated. Life-threatening problems can result when drug interactions between your daily medications cause side effects, and nowhere might that be more clear than with Viagra and high blood pressure.

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) reports that approximately 30 million men in the United States are affected by erectile dysfunction (ED). Given this large number, it’s safe to assume there are lots of guys who deal with both erectile dysfunction and high blood pressure.

It leads to a lot of questions with some serious implications. Let’s answer a few quickly:

• Does Viagra raise your blood pressure? No, it doesn’t.

• Does Viagra lower your blood pressure? Yes, it can cause low blood pressure, also known as hypotension.

• Are high blood pressure and Viagra a dangerous combination? It depends what medications you’re on.

Don’t be too worried, though — this can be avoided entirely if you follow some simple precautions. But first, the most pressing question.

Generally, it’s thought to be safe to take Viagra if you have high blood pressure.

Now that you have the good news, it may be helpful to have a basic understanding of how sildenafil works. If you don’t deal with ED, when you get aroused, signals travel from your brain to the smooth muscles in your blood vessels that encourage blood to flow to your penis. As blood flows to your penis, it increases in size and gets firm.

Your penis stays firm, thanks to the tunica albuginea, which reduces the amount of blood that can flow out of the penis until you are no longer aroused.

If something goes wonky with this process, sildenafil can help by dilating the arteries that allow blood to flow into your penis. This encourages more blood to flow into the area, so you get erect.

When you have high blood pressure, your heart and blood vessels have to work harder to make blood flow through your body. This is pretty much the opposite of what sildenafil does — as a reminder, it relaxes certain blood vessels to allow blood to flow more easily.

Does Viagra raise blood pressure? While Viagra may increase blood flow to the penis, it doesn’t raise blood pressure. In fact, some research suggests the opposite.

One study found that there were slight decreases in blood pressure in men taking sildenafil. However, the researchers noted that the decrease in blood pressure was insignificant. It also concluded that sildenafil is generally safe for younger and older men with and without hypertension.

Research has found that taking Viagra does not increase high blood pressure. 

Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, is actually used to treat a certain kind of high blood pressure in the lungs. Called Revatio (and also available as generic Revatio), this version of sildenafil is FDA approved to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This is because, in addition to dilating the arteries that supply blood to the penis, sildenafil can dilate the blood vessels in the lungs and reduce blood pressure there.

Separately, if you’re dealing with high blood pressure, it could impact your sex life by inhibiting your sexual function.

For the most part, there are no overt symptoms of high blood pressure. Many people may not even know they have hypertension until they see a healthcare provider.

However, having high blood pressure can damage your arteries over time. This could result in less blood and oxygen getting to your heart, which can lead to cardiovascular disease (more commonly called heart disease), chest pain and even a heart attack or heart failure.

If you have heart issues caused by high blood pressure, it’ll be hard to focus on sexual desire. This is just one of many reasons it’s important to take care of your health and regularly check in with a medical provider.

It’s important to talk to your healthcare provider before taking Viagra and let them know about what medical conditions you have and what medications you are taking. Viagra can interact with several different medications, including those used for high blood pressure and heart disease. While some combinations might be okay (again, with the guidance of a healthcare professional),Viagra should not be mixed with medications such as alpha blockers, nitrates, and others. These medication interactions can cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure. 

It’s worth repeating, most people with elevated blood pressure can take Viagra (or sildenafil) as long as you’ve discussed it with your healthcare provider and are avoiding certain drug interactions. 

In addition to Viagra, there are various other ED medications that have been shown to help with sexual dysfunction. This includes:

• Tadalafil. Tadalafil (and the brand name Cialis®) is in the same class of medications as Viagra. It can last up to 36 hours, which is why it’s often called the “weekend ED medication.”

• Levitra®. Levitra (and the generic version vardenafil) is another type of ED medication. It works within 30 to 60 minutes of taking it. In a clinical trial, 75 percent of men said they got an erection that was hard enough for sex after using the 10-milligram dose, while 80 percent of men said the same after taking a 20-milligram dose.

• Avanafil. Avanafil (sold under the brand name Stendra®) works after 15 minutes. Many like it because it’s associated with fewer side effects than other oral ED medications.

If you’re interested in taking an ED medication or want to learn more about how these types of treatments impact blood pressure, it’s best to consult with a healthcare professional.

Hims offers consultations that make it easy to discuss your sexual dysfunction, along with any other medical conditions you may have that could interact with ED medications or be causing your erection issues. Get started today.