What was it like being able to talk with men who had struggled with erectile dysfunction

and tried to manage it as a mental health problem, that you were able to say to them,

actually there's something going on physiologically that I think we can help you out with?

It's like they won the lottery.

I mean, you're not a man and you don't have a penis, but when it doesn't work, you challenge all aspects of your ego, your being, your self-worth.

You say, what did I do?

Am I guilty of something?

What did I do wrong? I guilty of something? What did I do wrong?

I'm Anna Sale, and this is hard.

A series from death, sex, and money about Viagra.

Men worry about their erections all the time.

Arectile dysfunction.

Abstinence does not make the heart drool fonder.

And the ways we do and don't talk about sex, relationships, and our bodies.

I even went to therapy for a year.

I never really talked about it.

Viagra was approved by the FDA almost a quarter century ago in the spring of 1998. It was the first oral pill to treat erectile dysfunction.

Sex lives were going to be revolutionized.

And who did Pfizer hire as their spokesperson?

Former Republican Senator Bob Dole.

Courage.

Something shared by countless Americans.

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