Recalling the Madness

By CHRIS CONWAY
Viagra is just another pill in the medicine cabinet these days, one of three on the market to treat the once all-but-unmentionable problem of erectile dysfunction. But 10 years ago last week, when government regulators approved it for sale, Viagra became the first pill available to treat the problem. The reaction was, well... Here’s what reporters for The New York Times found in the drug’s first months.
Beginning another day on the front lines of what he refers to as “Viagra madness,” Dr. Stanley Bloom, urologist and impotence specialist, flexed his hand to steel it against writing cramps. Men’s redemption from sexual malfunction was exacting its physical toll on his already ragged penmanship. So many craved a prescription for the little blue Pfizer pill that was sweeping the country, but how much could a 60-year-old right hand take?
Some urologists had acquired stamps to apply their signature on Viagra prescriptions. Dr. Bloom had his nurse prepare a tidy stack of prescriptions in advance. Then he authenticated them the old-fashioned way as the men tumbled in.
“I’m burning out,” he lamented as the chronically jammed waiting room of his Physicians in Urology offices on East Northfield Road emptied into the hive of examination rooms, though he was sincerely gratified to see a breakthrough against an affliction that consumes his practice.
In trooped the patients, something like 25 a day in the last three weeks for the diamond-shaped miracle pill, extending Dr. Bloom’s daily office hours three hours beyond the norm. Reflecting the very height of exuberance and expectation, John Dowling, 69, a retired packaging foreman for Budweiser, only half-jokingly asked for a prescription for 1,000 pills.
“They’re $10 apiece,” Dr. Bloom replied.
“Five hundred, then?”
“That’s $5,000. You’ve got to be kidding.”
He settled for 20.
It was already his second prescription. He had been in two weeks ago and had tested the pill five times, with gratifying results.

Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential candidate, disclosed on “Larry King Live” that he had participated in clinical trials for Viagra. “It’s a great drug,” he told Mr. King. A few days later, his wife visited New York City. Dan Barry was there.
It is not often that City Hall reporters dare to ask visiting dignitaries about their sex lives. But these are the days of Viagra, when frank discussions of impotence can seem as natural as talking about fiscal conservatism.
So when Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross, graced a City Hall news conference with her meticulous presence yesterday, everyone in the room knew for certain that one question would be asked — a rather indelicate question that had nothing to do with her organization ....
Mrs. Dole accepted a proclamation from Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. After talking passionately about how important the Red Cross’s efforts are in places like Rwanda and Bosnia, she invited questions. There was a brief inquiry about mudslides in Italy, and then The Question was posed.
“In a normal time, I would ask you what would be your view of the Presidential candidacy of Mayor Giuliani,” the reporter said. “But there are more pressing matters of national importance. And it seems your husband was one of the first people who used Viagra. What advice would you give to men and women in this nation about the use of that pill?”
Mr. Giuliani laughed nervously and shook his head in disgust. Mrs. Dole, however, had been prepped.
“I’ll make this statement,” she said, smiling without a hint of fluster. “He was in the protocol, and it’s a great drug, O.K.?”
Jon Nordheimer traveled to Miami to check the reaction there.
Retirement communities are buzzing with speculation on Viagra and its restorative promise.... But marriage and sex counselors are uneasy that men, whatever their age, are overhauling their sex lives without any guidelines to the possible earthquake they may introduce into their emotional lives....
“Many elderly couples are very active sexually, but there are those who have lost interest and haven’t been intimate for years,” said Dr. Elliot Klorfein, a Florida urologist, who has many retirees as patients. He said he has written “a zillion” prescriptions for Viagra in the last few weeks, and much of the demand is coming from retirees he’s never treated before.
“Typically, an older man is still interested in sex, and he jumps at an idea that here’s a pill he can take orally that will make him a new man,” Dr. Klorfein said. “The trouble is his wife is no longer interested .... So her husband is all dressed up with nowhere to go.”
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A Wall Street titan was inspired to generosity, as Ian Fisher reported.
Alan C. Greenberg bettered his own life by becoming rich on Wall Street, and yesterday he gave away $1 million of that money to better the lives of other aging men in a very specific way: He will pay for Viagra prescriptions for people who cannot afford them.
“I guess you could say I’m kind of into basics,” said Mr. Greenberg, 70, the chairman of Bear, Stearns Companies, who received a $20 million bonus last year. “And I think it’s something that will give a lot of pleasure to a lot of people.”
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Perhaps inevitably, women wondered what Viagra might do for them. Alex Kuczynski talked to a few of them, including a 42-year-old nurse in New Jersey who described the first time she took Viagra.
“I only see my boyfriend every two weeks because we live in different states,” she explained. “And if I’m not in the mood on one of those weekends, well, then there goes the month. I’ve been with him for about two and a half years, and it’s just not as exciting as it used to be.”
Last Saturday night, she swallowed a blue, diamond-shaped Viagra pill, which she sneaked from a cache in the office where she works. The dosage was 50 milligrams, the standard for male sexual dysfunction. She chose not to tell her partner. “We were watching television, just a regular movie,” she said, noting that after an hour she began to feel “a fullness. I can’t say it was a tingling, but it was some effect of the increased blood flow to the area.” The couple retreated to the bedroom, and the pill began to work its alleged magic.
“I have to say it was great,” the woman said. ”It was animalistic. I can definitely say it was not a placebo effect. I’m a nurse, and I’m trained to recognize those things.”