Can you dissolve Viagra in water? The leaflet does not say to: it says to swallow the tablet whole with a full glass of water. The water is there to wash the tablet down (Viagra CMI). Neither the Australian leaflet nor the European product information gives any instructions for dissolving, crushing or splitting the tablet, and every timing on the label assumes it is swallowed as directed. Forms of sildenafil made to dissolve in the mouth do exist, and they are separate products with their own instructions.
What does the Viagra label say about water?
Only that you swallow the tablet with it. The Australian leaflet's instruction is "Swallow the tablet whole with a full glass of water", about one hour before you intend to have sex; the amount of time it takes to start working "normally takes between half an hour and one hour" (Viagra CMI). The European package leaflet says the same: "Swallow the tablet whole with a glass of water" (EMA package leaflet). The label sets no water temperature and names no other drink to take it with. The full routine is in how to take sildenafil citrate for best results.
Does the label say anything about dissolving, crushing or splitting it?
No. Viagra is a film-coated tablet (EMA product information), and neither label describes taking it any other way than whole. It gives no instructions for stirring it into water, crushing it, chewing it or cutting it, and no figures for what happens if you do. Cutting has its own answer in can Viagra pills be split in half?, and chewing or crushing in does chewing or crushing Viagra make it work faster? If a lower dose is the reason, sildenafil comes as 25, 50 and 100 mg tablets (ARTG), and your doctor decides which one you take (Viagra CMI).
Would dissolving it make Viagra work faster?
The label gives no reason to think so. Its absorption figures are for the tablet taken by mouth: on an empty stomach sildenafil reaches its highest level in the blood within 30 to 120 minutes, 60 minutes in the middle case (EMA product information). What the label does say changes the speed is food. "You may find VIAGRA takes longer to work if you take it with a heavy meal" (Viagra CMI), and taken with food its peak comes about 60 minutes later on average (EMA product information). How much a meal matters is covered in the effect of food on Viagra absorption and empty stomach or after eating? Even the form made to dissolve in the mouth is not labelled as faster: its leaflet gives the same "between half an hour and one hour" as the tablet (EMA package leaflet).
Can you dissolve a dose in advance?
The leaflet asks for the opposite. "Keep the tablets in their pack until it is time to take them. If you take your tablets out of the pack, they will not keep as well" (Viagra CMI). Store them below 30°C in that pack. The form made to melt in the mouth has the same rule in stronger words: it "should be taken immediately upon removal from the blister" (EMA product information). More in how should sildenafil be stored?
Is there a form of sildenafil that dissolves in the mouth?
Yes, but not one you dissolve in a glass. In Europe, Viagra 50 mg orodispersible tablets are placed "in the mouth, on the tongue, where it will dissolve in seconds, then swallow with saliva or water", on an empty stomach (EMA package leaflet). Taken without water, they gave the same blood levels as the 50 mg film-coated tablet (EMA product information). They are not among the three Viagra entries on the Australian register. What the register does hold is sildenafil 25 mg and 50 mg sublingual wafers, sold as Wafesil and made to be placed under the tongue: registered in 2018 for erectile dysfunction in adult men, and prescription-only (ARTG 288497; healthdirect — Wafesil). Whether an ordinary tablet works under the tongue is answered in can Viagra be dissolved and absorbed under the tongue?; how fast the dissolving forms work, and how long they last, in the duration and effectiveness of sublingual sildenafil.
What if you find tablets hard to swallow?
Say so to the doctor who prescribes it, rather than dissolving the tablet. The leaflet's own advice when the instructions do not suit you is to ask: "If you do not understand the instructions on the box, ask your doctor or pharmacist for help" (Viagra CMI). A form made for the mouth is one of the things they can consider.
The short answer
Do not dissolve Viagra in water: swallow the tablet whole with a full glass of water, about an hour before sex, one dose a day at most. The label gives no instructions or data for a dissolved tablet. Sildenafil that dissolves in the mouth comes as its own product, on prescription. More on doses is in our dosage guide.
