What is erectile dysfunction medicines?

You may use medicine to treat erection problems. But this can be dangerous.

Talk with your doctor about whether medicines for erection problems are safe for you if you:

• Have heart disease.
• Have heart failure or low blood pressure.
• Are taking medicine for high blood pressure.

PDE-5 inhibitors

PDE-5 inhibitors should never be used if you may need to take a nitrate-containing medicine, such as nitroglycerin. Taking nitroglycerin and a PDE-5 inhibitor within 24 hours (or 72 hours for long-acting tadalafil) of each other may greatly lower your blood pressure. This could lead to a heart attack, stroke, or death.

These medicines include sildenafil (such as Viagra), tadalafil (such as Cialis), and vardenafil (such as Levitra).

Taking PDE-5 inhibitors can also cause low blood pressure if:

• You use a combination of drugs for high blood pressure.
• You take alpha blockers. These drugs are used to lower blood pressure and to treat an enlarged prostate.

For these reasons, you also shouldn't take PDE-5 inhibitors with these medicines without talking to your doctor. The combination could cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure.

Tests for heart disease

If you take a PDE-5 inhibitor and are going to have a test for heart disease, make sure that your doctor knows that you take it.

• You should not take sildenafil (such as Viagra), vardenafil (such as Levitra), or tadalafil (such as Cialis) for 24 hours before the test.
• Do not take long-acting tadalafil (such as Cialis) for at least 72 hours before the test.

Then if you have a problem during the test, it will be safe to use nitrate-containing medicines such as nitroglycerin.