Can you drink alcohol with Viagra? A little, yes — a lot works against it. Alcohol does not interact with sildenafil in a dangerous way at moderate levels, but the Viagra leaflet warns that drinking can temporarily impair your ability to get an erection and says not to drink large amounts before sex. So a drink or two is the most that makes sense.
Is it dangerous to mix Viagra and alcohol?
Not at moderate levels, in the studies behind the label. Sildenafil 50 mg "did not potentiate the hypotensive effects of alcohol in healthy volunteers with mean maximum blood alcohol levels of 80 mg/dL" (EMA) — that is, it did not make alcohol's blood-pressure drop worse at that level. Heavy drinking is a different matter: both alcohol and sildenafil can make you dizzy or light-headed.
Does alcohol stop Viagra working?
It can get in the way. "Drinking alcohol can temporarily impair the ability to get an erection. Do not drink large amounts of alcohol before sexual activity." (Viagra CMI) Sildenafil still needs sexual arousal to work, and heavy drinking dulls exactly that.
How much is too much?
The leaflet does not set a number — it says "large amounts". The practical reading: if you want the tablet to work, keep to one or two standard drinks and do not drink heavily in the hours before sex.
Does the type of drink matter?
No. What matters is how much alcohol you drink, not whether it is beer, wine or spirits. (Grapefruit juice is the one drink the sildenafil label singles out, for a different reason — it can raise sildenafil levels modestly.)
Can drinking cause erectile dysfunction?
Heavy, long-term drinking is linked with erection problems — see can alcohol cause erectile dysfunction? and why alcohol affects sexual performance. If you need Viagra to get past the effect of alcohol, the alcohol may be part of the cause.
What about Cialis and alcohol?
The Cialis leaflet lists "large amounts of alcohol" among the things that interact with tadalafil — see can you drink alcohol with Cialis? Men with low blood pressure should take extra care with both — see Viagra with low blood pressure.
The short answer
One or two drinks with Viagra is not known to be harmful, but a lot of alcohol makes an erection harder to get and adds to dizziness. Never combine Viagra with nitrates or "poppers", whatever you are drinking. Every combination is covered in our guide to taking Viagra or Cialis with other medicines.
