Does Viagra Make You Last Longer in Bed?

The world of comic books has always included a diverse array of superpowers, but if we’re picking our power, we’d have to go with manipulating time. What’s not to like about making workdays go faster and the good times go slower? Who wouldn’t want to skip the office and spend weeks in bed?

Enter Viagra: the pill (many men assume) can give us this power in our most intimate struggles.

Because brand name Viagra®, also known as sildenafil citrate, is thought of as a “cure-all” for sex ailments (but mostly for erectile dysfunction), many men turn to it as a solution to the oldest problem: how to last long in bed. But does Viagra stop you from coming faster than you want?

The truth is that Viagra may not necessarily be the best superpower for treating premature ejaculation. Getting it up and keeping it up are, after all, two different issues.

Below, you’ll learn more about:

• The evidence for and against sildenafil citrate for boosting sexual stamina. 

• Real, science-backed options for improving your sexual stamina and performance.

But first, some important info.

TLDR; Does Viagra Make You Last Longer? 

Today, a variety of treatments are available for premature ejaculation, ranging from lidocaine-based premature ejaculation spray to techniques like the stop-start strategy, the squeeze technique and masturbating before sex.

Then, there’s Viagra. Although the "little blue pill"  is designed and marketed primarily as a treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED), many men believe that taking a dose of Viagra can make it easier to last longer in bed. But the evidence for adding minutes to your game isn’t as airtight as you’d expect. Consider the following points about premature ejaculation:

• There is some evidence that FDA-approved Viagra and other ED medications may help you last longer in bed, but options such as PE spray or masturbating before sex are more standard treatments for delaying orgasm.

• If you are having trouble lasting for an extended period of time, talk to a healthcare professional about premature ejaculation treatment options, including Viagra and delay spray. 

• Does Viagra make you horny? Unfortunately, no. It also won’t prevent performance anxiety or make your penis larger. 

• Even for men who don’t meet the clinical definition of premature ejaculation, it’s quite common to want to improve your sexual stamina and last longer in bed.  

Can Viagra Help You Last Longer?

First, some good news. You know Viagra as a medication that can help you get hard and stay hard, but there's quite a bit of evidence out there to suggest it may also be able to help you if you're getting to the finish line a little earlier than you'd like to be. 

Viagra (sildenafil citrate) is a type of medication called a phosphodiesterase type 5 enzyme inhibitor. PDE5 inhibitors such as Viagra, Cialis (tadalafil) and Levitra (vardenafil) are designed to treat ED by increasing blood flow into the soft, erectile tissue and blood vessels of your penis. This can help you get an erection or maintain a firmer erection to improve the sexual experience for you and your partner. 

So, if you tend to lose your erection during sex and need to stop because you’re no longer hard, Viagra’s effects could help you have sex for longer without being affected by erectile dysfunction. 

On average, Viagra lasts for up to four hours after you take your dose. 

Why Viagra Could Help

There are a few interesting studies about Viagra’s effects on sexual dysfunction that are worth mentioning:

• In a small 2007 study published in the International Journal of Urology: Official Journal of the Japanese Urological Association, researchers found that sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra) was linked to an increase in ejaculation time in men affected by premature ejaculation.

• Another study from 2005 published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine found that men who used sildenafil experienced a small increase in time before ejaculation. However, the increase compared to placebo wasn’t statistically significant.

• One 2006 study published in the International Journal of Impotence Research notes that sildenafil (in comparison to other ED treatments and a placebo) proved to be more effective at treating PE. 

• According to a clinical study published in the International Journal of Impotence Research, sildenafil can reduce refractory time by several minutes. In this study, the average reduction in time was about nine minutes.

What Viagra Won’t Do

Now the bad news — these studies are not enough to make Viagra a standard treatment option for increasing the amount of time you can last in bed before ejaculating. 

The amount of time that you can have sexual intercourse before you ejaculate and or the amount of sensitivity you experience during sex when you orgasm and ejaculate are, arguably, the two most common complaints of men with PE. But while Viagra may increase the amount of time you have an erection for, it doesn’t actually have an effect on those two complaints.

Those studies are interesting but not interesting (or conclusive) enough for the medical community to make Viagra a first-line PE treatment to help you last longer in bed. 

However, despite the inconclusive nature of these studies, some providers prescribe Viagra off-label to treat PE. 

Oh, and a few more things to note. In addition to having little effect on the amount of time you can last before you climax and ejaculate, Viagra also won’t boost your sex drive, prevent you from getting tired, reduce performance anxiety, or make your penis larger than normal — that’s not what Viagra does.

Why You Should Consider the Side Effects of Viagra First

Also fellas, we admit you have to contend with the side effects of Viagra if you want to go that route. Those might include anything from headaches and blurred vision to chest pain and heart attacks. You’ll need to tell a healthcare professional if you currently have any medical condition or are treating heart disease or hypertension, and you’ll want to avoid medications like nitrates, alpha-blockers and others that could cause low blood pressure.

The Best Treatments to Last Longer in Bed

Viagra (sildenafil) may or may not be an answer to the “how to last long in bed?” question, and it also won’t be the first thing your healthcare provider suggests. 

There are already several proven, science-backed treatments available for PE that can help you delay ejaculation and last longer in bed, including:

• Premature ejaculation spray

• SSRI antidepressants 

• Non-medicinal techniques for reducing sexual stimulation

Premature Ejaculation Spray

One thing that may stretch your time is a rub down with a numbing chemical.

Studies show that lidocaine-based sprays are extremely effective as treatments for premature ejaculation. In a 2003 study published in the International Journal of Impotence Research, men with PE were able to increase their ejaculation latency from one minute and 14 seconds to 11 minutes and 21 seconds after applying a lidocaine-based spray. That kind of return on investment is what made Warren Buffett a billionaire, and we’re pretty sure sex is better than money.

We offer an OTC delay spray, delivered right to your door, if you want to give this PE treatment a shot.

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) 

Another thing that could add minutes to your sessions is treating PE like it’s depression — literally.

Certain selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as paroxetine and sertraline, are effective at prolonging sexual activity before orgasm and treating premature ejaculation — and healthcare professionals have basically used this side effect as a treatment. 

Sertraline (the active ingredient in Zoloft) is one of several SSRIs used to treat PE and improve sexual performance. According to a study published in the journal, Medicine, sertraline is effective at prolonging ejaculation latency time and improving rates of sexual satisfaction between patients and their partners.  

Additionally, a 2007 study published in the journal Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management found that men with premature ejaculation who used paroxetine, fluoxetine, or escitalopram experienced reduced premature ejaculation symptoms and improved sexual performance.

So, it may not be Viagra, but there are indeed pills to make you last longer in bed.

Non-Pharmaceutical Treatments

Treating PE might not require any medications, of course. Instead, you might simply have to exert some self-control — or some self-love. Beyond medications such as lidocaine and sertraline, there are several ways to increase your time before ejaculation and improve your sexual performance without using drugs. 

These include simple techniques like: 

• The start-stop technique. It’s 100 percent true that if you stop before finishing, you can start again and still keep the clock running on your session.

• The squeeze technique. Before you finish, pull out and squeeze the tip of your penis to reduce your urge to blow, then go back to action.

• Thinking about something to distract yourself from finishing. Baseball, cold showers and grandpa in his underwear don’t normally have a place in the bedroom, but this is the (gross) exception.

• Kegels. These not-just-for-women exercises can increase your muscle control, which could lead to longer performance windows.

• Masturbating before sex. The oldest trick in the book is decreasing sensitivity by just rubbing one out ahead of time.

• Getting into therapy. Talking about your performance anxiety can actually help you fight performance anxiety. Crazy, right? Hims even offers an online counseling platform for you to check out therapy from the comfort of your home.

Our guide to stopping premature ej​​​​aculation covers these approaches in more detail, with scientific data to back up each treatment option.

Viagra and Lasting Longer in Bed

Does Viagra make you last longer in bed? There isn’t a clear answer either way, mostly because people have the wrong idea about how Viagra works. 

But not you — no, you understand that Viagra doesn’t make erections, nor does it treat PE. 

You may find the benefits of Viagra do help you last longer in bed, but we hope that even if you give it a try, you remember a few important facts:

• Most people get it wrong. How Viagra affects your refractory period, increases sexual desire, or makes you last longer isn’t really the point.

• Viagra’s only benefit is helping you to be at your erectile best — the rest is on you.

• If you are looking to simply maintain an erection for a longer period of time, ED medications such as Viagra could be the option for you. 

• While results may appear promising, there is not enough evidence to sufficiently say Viagra is a standard premature ejaculation treatment. 

So there — now you’ve done the most important thing you can do when you have a problem: you learned about it. 

Want to do more? Talk to a Hims provider about sertraline for PE and paroxetine for PE.

You can also learn about the differences between Viagra and Cialis, your options for premature ejaculation pills and the available premature ejaculation treatments.