The Dosages of Viagra

There are 3 dosages of Viagra; 25mg, 50mg, and 100mg. Which one is right for you will depend on how much you need to feel the effects and also whether or not you get side effects.

Most people start on 50mg and then switch based on what the results are.

There are three dosages of Viagra that you can be prescribed. The dosage of any medication is the total amount of it that you’ll need to take – it refers to the strength of the medication and the number of times you’ll need to take that medication in a day. In this case it means how much of the active ingredient, sildenafil citrate, is in the Viagra tablet.

The three dosages of Viagra are 25mg, 50mg, or 100mg, and these are all available as tablets.

Each dosage of Viagra (25mg, 50mg, or 100mg) is different because it contains a different amount of medication, compared with the others. This means that the 100mg dosage is stronger than the 50mg or 25mg dosages.

25 milligrams

This is the lowest available dosage of Viagra you can be prescribed. Your doctor might recommend this dosage if you had side effects from taking the 50mg dosage.

Your doctor might also recommend this 25mg dosage if they think a lower dosage would be a safer option for you. This might be the case if you’re taking certain types of treatments, like those for:

• HIV (HIV protease inhibitors)
• High blood pressure (alpha blockers)

50 milligrams

Normally, this is the first dosage that your doctor will recommend for you. This is also the most common dosage that men will take, and most men find that it’s enough to improve their erections. 

Depending on whether this 50mg dosage works for you and how your body responds to it, the dosage may be increased to a maximum recommended dosage of 100mg, or decreased to 25mg.

100 milligrams

This is the highest recommended dosage of Viagra. 

This dosage of Viagra is usually recommended for you if the 50mg dosage doesn’t give you an erection hard enough, and if it doesn’t give you any side effects. These are both important to remember since you want your medication to work well for you, without causing any harm to your health.

Your online doctor or GP will normally start you with the 50mg dosage before moving you up to this higher one, once you and you’ve discussed this together.

If you haven’t tried Viagra before, you should start on the 50mg dosage. This is the standard dosage that most people would try first.

If you’ve tried 50mg and it worked, but you got side effects, then you could try a lower dosage. 25mg can work just as well as 50mg for some people and it has less chance of causing stronger side effects.

Your health and body are different to everyone else’s. So certain dosages of Viagra might work differently for you, compared with someone else. For example, as you get older, you might find that you need a higher dosage of Viagra.

If you’ve tried 50mg and it hasn’t worked, then you could move up to 100mg. You can only move up to 100mg if you haven’t had side effects from Viagra 50mg, because the risk of stronger side effects is bigger at the higher dosage. Also as long as you don’t get side effects, you should try 50mg at least 4 times before deciding it doesn’t work, because it can take a few tries for your body to respond properly to Viagra.

The most effective Viagra dosage is technically 100mg, since it delivers the highest amount of medication aimed to improve your erection.

What your doctor and you will need to consider, however, is your personal health and whether the maximum dosage of Viagra is likely to be both effective and safe for you. The aim is to make sure that your dosage is high enough so that you see the positive effects of Viagra, but without experiencing the side effects. These are more likely to happen on the higher dosage.

Because of this, your doctor’s first recommendation will often be 50mg, rather than the maximum 100mg dosage. If it seems like the 50mg isn’t enough, then the 100mg dosage might be prescribed.

Generally, a lower dosage of a medication is more likely to be safe and cause less side effects than a higher dosage. So the 25mg dosage of Viagra is considered the safest of the three dosages.

Remember that every medication has a risk of causing side effects. You need to get assessed by your doctor and trust that they’ll decide on the right dosage for you. The dosage that they decide on for you will be the one to minimise your risk of side effects and maximise the benefit you experience. 

Your doctor is most likely to recommend the 50mg dosage of Viagra, but you shouldn’t be afraid of side effects because this is a higher dosage than the 25mg. Most side effects are mild and you can adjust your dosage if and when you experience them.

If you want to increase your dosage of Viagra, you should go through a doctor assessment before trying a higher dosage.

Normally, if you want to increase your dosage, it’s because the lower dosages haven’t had any or enough effect on your erections. Once you’ve been assessed by your doctor and they’re happy for your dosage to be increased, you’re free to take the higher dosage.

You need to remember that you shouldn’t have more than 100mg of Viagra in each 24-hour time period (each day). To help you remember, it might be a good idea to make a note of when you take your medication, so you can keep track of this.

There are a few points you should make note of, so you can try and have the best experience taking your Viagra:

• Take your Viagra in the way your doctor has recommended
• Try having lighter meals, since heavy ones can delay how soon the Viagra affects you
• Not take another medication at the same time as Viagra, because this can cause dangerous side effects
• Avoid drinking grapefruit juice or too much alcohol
• Make some lifestyle changes, like stopping smoking and following a healthy diet, to provide you with all the nutrition you need

For any dosage of Viagra you’re taking, you should:

• Not take more than one tablet of Viagra each day. Taking too much Viagra increases your risk of side effects. For example, it could lower your blood pressure enough to make you faint and can cause permanent damage to your penis. If you believe that you’ve accidentally taken too much Viagra, you should visit your local emergency department immediately
• Take your Viagra as it’s needed, half an hour to an hour before you have sex. Bear in mind that it can be taken anywhere up to four hours before sex, and that you should patient and wait for it to have an effect

If you think that your Viagra isn’t working for you, there are a few things you might want to try:

• Sometimes it takes some time for your body to respond to a medication. Because of this, you should try your Viagra on at least four different days, to see if it starts to have any effect on you
• Try some other medical treatment options. Other medications that work in a similar way to Viagra are: tadalafil (Cialis), vardenafil (Levitra) and avanafil (Spedra). There are also medications like alprostadil that you inject into your penis
• Consider counselling. If you only sometimes have problems with erections, it’s possible that this is caused by anxiety, depression and/or other psychological factors. In these cases, your doctor might recommend counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy or sex therapy
• Penis pumps. These increase how much blood flows to the penis, which causes an erection. They work for most men and can be used if medication hasn’t worked for you or if you can’t take it
• Pelvic floor exercises. These can strengthen the muscles around the penis, improving blood flow and erections

You might also want to try making some lifestyle changes, alone or with other treatments: 

• Drinking less alcohol
• Trying to lose weight if you're overweight
• Quitting smoking
• Starting a healthy diet
• Exercising regularly (every day)
• Trying to reduce stress and anxiety, by changing your routine or taking up some calming hobbies