Viagra day...

By JoNel AlecciaHealth writer

msnbc.com

updated 2/10/2011 8:17:21 AM ET

Valentine’s Day is notorious for spiking sales of chocolates, roses and Hallmark cards, but new research shows that demand also rises for a surprising lovers’ secret: erectile dysfunction drugs.
In 2010, the week before Valentine’s Day saw more prescriptions written for erection-enhancing Viagra than any other week of the year, according to figures compiled by the firm Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions.
Some 199,450 prescriptions were logged totaling 1.34 million of the famous little blue pills the week of Feb. 5, 2010. That’s nearly 26 percent more Viagra than the lowest-use week of the year, Nov. 26, 2010 — Thanksgiving week, when extended families typically gather.
Overall, the week before Valentine’s Day is among the top weeks of the year for demand for all male sex-enhancing drugs, with 396,670 total prescriptions logged representing about 2.9 million doses. That's nearly 100,000 more pills and injections — and potential love connections — than in an average week.
The reason for the rise is simple, said Dr. Irwin Goldstein, a urologist and director of the San Diego Sexual Medicine center at Alvarado Hospital.

'It's Viagra Day'

“It’s not Valentine’s Day, it’s Viagra Day,” joked Goldstein. “Valentine’s Day is the one day in the 365-day calendar where interest in intimacy and romance is memorialized.”
In fact, for men — and women — in relationships, expectations are high for having sex on Feb. 14, said Debby Herbenick, associate director of The Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University in Bloomington.

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