Updated 6/8/2022
If you’re one of the millions of people who got your hands on a sweet bottle of Viagra this past year, you may be thinking, “I wonder how many months and years of boners these delightful little blue pills will bring me.” Well, first of all, the answer is technically printed right there on the bottle. Look closely! There’s an expiration date.
But really though, when do they actually expire?
First, a lil’ history. Legally, both prescription and over-the-counter medications are required to have an expiration date, as dictated by the Food and Drug Administration. These expiration dates don’t necessarily mark the exact month that a medicine will go bad, but instead serve as a barometer of the window of time in which a medicine is known to still be stable and effective when stored properly. However, even the FDA admits that many drugs are still good long after that date has passed, and has re-tested many drugs’ effectiveness after the expiration date as part of its Shelf-Life Extension Program.
So, will that 10-year old Viagra work? As it turns out, 90 percent of drugs tested by the FDA are still good even 15 years after they expire. As for Viagra, though? There haven’t been any publicly released studies about the effectiveness of expired Viagra, so we don’t really know if that data applies.
“In general, we typically would recommend patients discard their medications as soon as the expiration date passes,” says Michael Ingber, a urologist at Garden State Urology and medical director for COR Medspa in New Jersey. “Patients who choose to take medicine shortly after it expires may find that it still works, whereas if several months or years have passed, it may be ineffective.”
On the bright side, while your expired Viagra not working will be a disappointment, it’s not necessarily a health threat. Again, though, you might want to reconsider taking it well beyond the expiration date. “Past this time, bacteria and yeast may grow in the packaging and render it dangerous,” says Ingber.
You might be able to avoid this by storing your medications as directed, but it’s possible that your boner pills could get moldy even when kept perfectly. In any case, it’s your body. The FDA isn’t going to arrest you for taking expired Viagra. It may work, in which case, rock on. Or it may not work, and you’ll end up getting some kind of tummy ache from yeast, which is probably also something you risk every day of your life anyway.
To be clear, I’m not recommending you take expired medications in any context. I’m just saying, you know, you do you.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
