by Dan Seitz
You may have heard about “Viagra Condoms” in the news, where an ED drug in gel form is layered over the condoms, which help men maintain an erection and keep the condom from slipping off. It sounds like a scam, but it is, in fact, legitimate…to a point.
First, “Viagra condoms” are just marketing shorthand: the condoms don’t actually contain Viagra and are not being developed by Pfizer (they’d rather put Viagra in gum). Viagra can’t be absorbed through the skin and must be taken orally. Instead, they have a topical gel called Zanifil, a dose of which is located in the reservoir of the condom and spreads over the glands of the penis, entering the bloodstream through the skin and, in theory, opening up the passages for more blood flow and stronger erections.
What’s the active ingredient? Glyceryl trinitrate, better known as nitroglycerin. 
Don’t worry: they’re not explosive. Nitroglycerin has been used to treat heart problems for more than a century; it works as a vasodilator, although precisely how it does so is still unclear. In fact, that’s how Viagra was discovered: Pfizer was looking for a drug that would serve as a better angina medication, so they looked at chemicals that mimicked nitroglycerin. They only discovered its famous effect when test subjects refused to return the pills.
Enter Futura Medical. Futura, the developer of these condoms, specializes in “transdermal” drugs, that is, creams and gels, and looks for new applications of drugs that have already been thoroughly tested and proven safe. They designed the condom to fit a specific need: men who tend to lose their erection while wearing condoms. This may sound like erectile dysfunction, but it’s not, necessarily; some men simply don’t get enough stimulation through the condom to maintain their erection, and thus usually go without, endangering themselves and their partners and also raising the risks of unwanted pregnancies.
But does it work? In theory, yes, but it has yet to be tested in trials. That’s currently being done by condom maker Durex for the European market? Even if it does, it seems unlikely it would be as effective as Viagra, Levitra, or Cialis; nitroglycerin has been tested in various contexts for decades and no report of any serious improvement to impotence has been found.
If it does work, when will it come to the US? That depends heavily on the results of the tests and also Durex. First, it has to pass European testing, and more tests would have to be done in the United States in order for the condom to be approved. Although tested, nitroglycerin is still a pharmaceutical-grade drug, and there are risks to using (or misusing) it.
In short, the “Viagra condom” does not contain Viagra, but may be promising to men who find it difficult to maintain an erection while wearing a condom. As testing progresses, we’ll let you know how the fortunes of this condom rise or fall.
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