Viagra: A Marriage Killer?

"Nobody had bothered to ask, might there be a downside, a dark underbelly to Viagra?"

Divorce lawyers are running around placing blame for the breakup of some marriages on the husband's use of Viagra. Personally, I find this argument to be intellectually weak and feel that this is more a case of the lawyers trying to build the groundwork for an eventual assault on Pfizer, the manufacturer of Viagra.

Just as "guns don't kill people, people kill people" Viagra does not cheat on its wife, the husband does. It is very weak to blame the tool for the actions of the person wielding the tool. Viagra doesn't screw women, men screw women. It is not the fault of the drug.

Yes the drug makes it more possible. But the drug does not force him to cheat, it is some greater underlying factor. Maybe the fling was cute; maybe his wife wasn't; maybe there was some other factor that made him want to get out of the relationship. In any event, it is his choice and his alone. It is not Pfizer's choice. It is not his wife's choice. His, and only his.

Perhaps Viagra exposes some of the rifts that would have otherwise stayed hidden in a loveless or faltering marriage. Is that something that Pfizer should be sued for? I don't think so.

Cheating on your mate is not a side effect of taking Viagra. Doing a clinical trial to ascertain if Viagra could create a tendency to cheat would be nearly impossible I would think as it would require an absolute determination of an impotent man's desire to cheat on his wife. It strikes me that making that determination would be an almost unattainable burden of proof.

Seeing as how a scientific study would be nearly impossible to achieve, I believe that some lawyers out looking for a big payday are starting to build an anecdotal case against Pfizer. I'll bet at some point we see a class action lawsuit against Pfizer based on the "evidence" that Viagra was named as a cause of a marriage failure in "X" number of divorce cases, or some junk scientist will publish a report based on "facts" found in divorce proceedings. Some way, some how Viagra being named in so many cases, without a real study or challenge will come back to hit Pfizer.

But for every bit of "evidence" being fabricated in divorce cases nationwide there is also evidence that suggests that the problem really isn't Viagra:

"My wife and I decided to separate. All this time, I'd thought that if I could have sex with her again, everything would work out fine. But it turns out that our problems are bigger than the sex thing. So we're splitting up."

"...our problems are bigger than the sex thing..." So is this proof of Viagra value or its "dark underbelly"? Is it better that these two people split up because he took Viagra and they discovered that their marriage had real problems? Or should they have stayed together longer, becoming more and more miserable together as the tensions mounted, until they either got a divorce or major health problems? Is it better to stay in a failing marriage through ignorance of the real irreconcilable differences or is it better to understand the depth of the problem facing you and then deciding to move forward to either counseling or divorce while there is still time to live life? It's a tough call, but I personally prefer the latter.

Viagra is not the perfect wonderdrug bereft of side effects. But causing infidelity is not one of them.

Viagra is not killing marriages. But failing marriages may kill Viagra.