Why Viagra’s not just for men: Women insist little blue pill has transformed their health, while medical experts say many more should take it (and this is the startling truth about what it does for your sex life)
For eight years, Gillian Murphy dreaded the onset of cold weather. Winter would leave the 71-year-old’s fingers white and freezing to the touch – while her feet became agonisingly cold and impossible to warm up. ‘The hands I could deal with,’ she says. ‘But the feet were debilitating – I had to buy boots two sizes too big so I could wear more socks. They became mottled and painful when I showered or had a bath. Nothing I did could warm them up.’
Eventually, she was diagnosed with Raynaud’s – a circulation disorder that causes blood vessels in the fingers and toes to temporarily constrict in the cold.
The condition, which affects as many as 10 million people in the UK – the vast majority of them women – has no cure and limited targeted therapies. But now Gillian reveals her life has been transformed – she is no longer struggling, day and night, to keep warm.
The miraculous treatment? A little blue pill – or, more precisely, three little blue pills a day.
Sildenafil – better known as Viagra, the blockbuster erectile dysfunction (ED) drug – has become an increasingly popular treatment for Raynaud’s.
It works by relaxing blood vessel walls, increasing blood flow to all parts of the body – including the fingers and toes. Studies suggest it can significantly reduce both the frequency and severity of attacks.
Gillian admits: ‘I was shocked when my doctor first suggested Viagra – but after he explained how much research has been done on the tablet, I agreed to try it.
‘Within a couple of months, I was convinced. I have no side-effects whatsoever, and my circulation is so much better. It has been amazing.’
Gillian Murphy struggled with Raynaud’s for eight years before giving Viagra a try – and seeing huge benefits
Originally invented as a medication for heart pain and high blood pressure, the sexual effects of Viagra were famously discovered by accident during early studies in the 1980s
It may seem unorthodox, but Raynaud’s is just one of many medical conditions that experts believe could potentially be treated using cheap and readily available ED drugs.
Originally invented as a medication for heart pain and high blood pressure, the sexual effects of Viagra were famously discovered by accident during early studies in the 1980s by researchers at pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
When clinical trials showed participants experienced a side-effect of the drug’s ability to boost blood flow to the penis, the team changed course – relaunching it in 1998 as a far more profitable treatment for ED. But experts, speaking to The Mail on Sunday, say that recent research suggests that Viagra – as well as newer ED medication tadalafil, better known as Cialis – could still stand to benefit a much wider range of health problems.
Both drugs are called PDE5 inhibitors – medications that relax involuntary muscles and increase blood flow by blocking the enzyme in the body that causes blood vessels to constrict. As a result, they can help lower blood pressure and improve circulation.
One 2017 trial by researchers in Sweden suggested Viagra could cut the risk of early death from heart disease by as much as 25 per cent. Another University of Manchester study published in 2016 found the drug could reduce deaths in type 2 diabetes patients by a third.
How it woke Monica from a coma
A nurse miraculously recovered from a Covid-induced coma after medics gave her a large dose of Viagra as part of an experimental treatment regime.
Monica Almeida, now 41, from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, was admitted to hospital in November 2022 after she began to cough up blood.
The mother of two, an asthma sufferer, was moved to intensive care a week later before doctors put her into an induced coma due to the severity of her infection.
Medics were three days from turning off her ventilator when she miraculously awoke – after being dosed with Viagra.
The erectile dysfunction drug enabled greater blood flow to all areas of her body by relaxing the walls of blood vessels. This allowed her airways to reopen.
Monica, pictured right with husband Artur, who was then discharged on Christmas Eve, says: ‘It was definitely the Viagra that saved me. Within 48 hours, it had opened up my airways and my lungs started to respond.
‘It was a Christmas miracle.’
And a 2024 study of more than 260,000 men found that those taking ED drugs were around 18 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those not taking them.
These benefits aren’t just limited to men, says prostate specialist Professor Michael Kirby of the British Society for Sexual Medicine. He argues, for women, some effects could be even greater.
Women are more likely to experience certain circulatory and cardiovascular issues than men, particularly after menopause when the body’s production of oestrogen – the hormone responsible for protecting blood vessels – sharply declines.
Likewise, they do not experience the same sexual effects of ED drugs as men, who face a medical emergency known as priapism – a painful, persistent erection lasting longer than four hours – if they take more than the recommended dose. Despite this, both sildenafil and tadalafil remain unlicensed for women in the UK – Viagra’s leaflet even states that ‘this medicine should not be used by women’.
Women who attempt to buy either over the counter or online will see the order blocked unless it’s put through a male account and the box asking about erectile dysfunction is ticked.
‘Viagra has been hijacked by men,’ says Professor Kirby. ‘But women can take it perfectly safely.
‘Research has now shown the drug improves a wide range of health outcomes – from heart disease to dementia. And there’s no reason that women shouldn’t get all the advantages that men do. They’ve missed out for too long.’
It’s a topic that The Mail on Sunday columnist and GP Dr Philippa Kaye discussed last week.
Despite growing evidence that Viagra could have health benefits for women, it’s still not widely prescribed for them, she wrote.
Dr Kaye asked women who had managed to get a prescription to get in touch – and she was flooded with emails and letters.
For Katie Grant, 57, Viagra proved to be the only thing that soothed her dry, red, swollen hands. ‘It had been going on for years, and I’d tried tons of medications and blood tests – they thought I had Raynaud’s, then osteoarthritis, then an autoimmune condition,’ she says.
Nothing helped Katie’s hands, which continued to grow cracked and painful each winter. Then, last March, a new specialist offered the Leicestershire office worker Viagra. ‘I said, go on then,’ says Katie. ‘And this has been the first year I’ve not had any swelling in my hands. I’m thrilled.’
But it’s not just circulatory issues that have women turning to erectile dysfunction drugs.
Swathes have taken to social media to discuss their off-label use of the medications. American genomics researcher Dr Kristi Sawicki told her nearly 70,000 TikTok followers that she takes a small dose of tadalafil each day to boost her ‘heart health’.
She explains: ‘In daily, lower doses than what you would use for erectile dysfunction, it improves blood flow and means more oxygen is getting to muscles, the brain and other organs.’ Elsewhere on the platform, female bodybuilders say they take it to boost their workouts – with the idea that increased blood flow helps make lifting heavier weights easier and speeds up recovery. One, Jesse Marji, even told her viewers that she was prescribed Cialis to boost hair growth.
While it has yet to be tested in humans, a 2018 study in Korea did show that Viagra significantly enhanced hair growth in mice.
And that’s not to mention the women who say they take ED drugs for a far simpler reason – to boost their sex lives.
Forums on chatroom platform Reddit are dedicated to sharing effects of the medication – with some women claiming it turbocharged their sex drive while others reported more intense orgasms. Some experts are sceptical that ED drugs can affect women’s sex lives – with no evidence to indicate they increase libido. But Prof Kirby believes they could help with increased lubrication as well as making orgasm more likely due to increased blood flow in the genitals.
Neither Katie nor Gillian reported any change to their intimate lives after beginning the medication. ‘I did wonder if I would be chasing men down the street,’ admits Katie, ‘but that definitely wasn’t the case.’
There is significant research, however, to back up claims that sildenafil and tadalafil can boost cardiovascular and circulatory health, says Prof Kirby.
‘Viagra is an old drug that has a lot of surprisingly good uses,’ he says. ‘There are plenty of studies showing that people at risk of cardiac events have around a 30 per cent reduced event rate when taking a PDE5 inhibitor. There’s similar evidence for men with diabetes. We need more research before prescribing it more widely, but I believe the effect would be equivalent in women.’
The phenomenon can already be seen in the case of pulmonary hypertension – the one condition for which sildenafil and tadalafil are licensed for women.
The rare condition – which causes high blood pressure in the part of the heart that supplies the lungs – is incurable. Instead, symptoms are treated with medications that relax and open blood vessels to improve blood flow.
What makes ED drugs an attractive treatment for such rare conditions is how safe and easy they are to administer.
Prof Kirby is currently applying for funding to trial tadalafil as a treatment for women with type 2 diabetes.
Katie Grant hopes increased awareness of the non-ED uses of Viagra will make it easier for women like her to access it, insisting: ‘I plan on continuing to take it as long as I can.’
