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The typical starting dose for Viagra is 50 mg, while the typical starting dose for Cialis is 10 mg. These dosages allow room to adjust up or down, depending on individual patient needs.
Like most medications, Cialis and Viagra come in a variety of dosage strengths, but finding the right dose for you is likely to take a bit of trial and error.
25 milligrams? 100 milligrams? Learn more about the right dosage for you when taking Viagra or Cialis erectile dysfunction medications.
Each of these two erectile dysfunction drugs — the best sellers in America and around the world — has a recommended starting dose, the amount of active ingredient that doctors have found works best for most patients.
Viagra and Cialis Dosage Chart
| Drug | Typical Starting Dose | Available Dosages | Daily Therapy Dose |
| Viagra | 50 mg | 25 mg, 50 mg, 100 mg | NA (Daily therapy not available with Viagra) |
| Cialis | 10 mg | 2.5 mg, 5 mg, 10 mg, 20 mg | 2.5 mg, 5 mg |
Because everyone’s physiology is unique to them, the recommended starting dose almost inevitably will be more than enough for some patients but maybe not quite enough for others. Working with your doctor, this is where the trial and error process comes in. If you’ve taken the recommended starting dose for Viagra, for example, and it fails to produce the desired results, you should probably go for the next higher dose available.
However, if the recommended starting dose produced the hoped-for results in record time but left you with a splitting headache or some other unpleasant side effect, you could be able to get by with the next smaller dose.
Starting Dose for Viagra Typically 50 mg
Viagra, the first of the new wave of oral ED drugs to hit the market back in 1998, is available in tablets of 25, 50, and 100 milligrams. The recommended starting dose for Pfizer’s little blue pill is 50 milligrams. If that’s not enough to get the job done, you can try a 100-mg tablet, which more than likely will be strong enough to produce the results you’re looking for. If you find that the 50-mg tablet is more than enough to allow you to get and keep an erection strong enough for sexual intercourse, you can step your dose down to 25 milligrams.
Pill-splitting, a technique that can be used for prescription medications in tablet form, can also help you to cut your spending for ED drugs, most of which come in tablet form. While logic would seem to dictate that a 50-mg pill would be priced about twice the amount charged for a 25-mg tablet, thankfully that’s not the case when it comes to prescription drugs. Most pills of varying strength are priced at the same price, and this is true of the 50- and 100-mg dosages of Viagra. If you find that a 25-mg dose of Viagra adequately restores your erectile function, then you may consider buying 50-mg tablets and using a pill splitter to produce twice as many doses for half the price. Be sure to use a pill-splitter, rather than a knife or attempting to split them in half by hand. Those techniques often produce uneven results.
2 Different Formulations of Cialis: Daily Therapy or “As Needed”
Cialis presents a unique dosing conundrum because unlike Viagra it comes in two different formulations — one to be taken daily and one that’s to be used on an as-needed basis. Daily Cialis is available in tablets of 2.5 and 5 milligrams each. If you take one of these pills faithfully each day, after a week or 10 days of this therapy, you should be able to achieve an erection whenever the need arises.
The higher-dose Cialis for use as needed comes in tablets of 10 and 20 milligrams each. Depending on the dose that works best for you, this on-demand version of Cialis is effective for up to 36 hours after the pill is taken. This has earned this form of Cialis the nickname “the weekend drug.”
Starting Doses for Cialis: 2.5 mg Daily, or 10 mg as Needed
The recommended starting dose for daily Cialis is 2.5 milligrams. If you’ve been on this regimen for a couple of weeks and still aren’t able to achieve erection whenever you’d like, you can switch to 5-mg tablets and see if that higher dose produces the desired results. However, here again, even if the 2.5-mg pills are working for you, you can realize savings by buying the 5-mg tablets and splitting them in half.
For Cialis as needed, the recommended starting dose is 10 milligrams, but if you find that’s not working for you, you can increase the dose to 20 milligrams. And if the 10-mg tablet produces results but causes unwelcome side effects, see if you can’t get by with a 5-mg tablet.
Most Side Effects Are Mild, Include Headache, Indigestion
As with most medications, Viagra and Cialis can produce adverse side effects, the vast majority of which are mild and may disappear altogether upon continued use. According to Viagra’s official website, the little blue pill’s most common side effects are an abnormal or blurred vision, back pain, dizziness, flushing, headache, muscle aches, nausea, rash, and upset stomach. Viagra can also have more serious side effects. These include a sudden decrease or loss of hearing or vision and an erection that lasts for more than four hours. If you should experience one of these more serious side effects, seek medical attention immediately.
Because both Viagra and Cialis belong to the same family of medications, known collectively as PDE5 inhibitors, they are similar in chemical structure and produce some of the same side effects. According to Cialis.com, that medication’s most common side effects include back pain, flushing, headache, indigestion, muscle aches, and runny or stuffy nose. And as with Viagra, Cialis’s more serious side effects are a sudden decrease or loss of hearing and/or vision and an erection lasting more than four hours. These more serious side effects demand immediate medical attention.
Side Effects Typically Dose-Dependent
Side effects also should be taken into consideration when attempting to identify the dosage that’s right for you. If you’re taking 100-mg tablets of Viagra and it’s working just fine but you continue to experience one or more of these unpleasant side effects, try taking 50 milligrams and see if the side effects disappear.
Other over-the-counter or prescription medications you may be taking can interact adversely with both Cialis and Viagra. In many cases, your doctor may be able to suggest an alternative drug that either causes no interaction or sharply reduces the adverse interaction. However, both Cialis and Viagra are incompatible with nitrate-based drugs, such as those taken for the treatment of angina or intractable high blood pressure. Taking one of these ED drugs at the same time you’re on a nitrate-based drug could conceivably cause a life-threatening drop in blood pressure.
Cialis Dispensed by Prescription
A doctor’s prescription is required for the purchase of either Cialis or Viagra. If you already have a doctor’s prescription, did you know you can get it filled through a reputable online supplier, such as eDrugstore.com? It’s hassle-free, fast, and discreet. If the convenience and confidentiality of online ordering appeal to you, you can fax or scan and email your doctor’s prescription to eDrugstore.com along with your order.
If you don’t yet have a doctor’s prescription, eDrugstore.com can set up a complimentary online consultation with a member of its team of licensed US doctors. If your ED symptoms and overall medical history indicate that it’s medically appropriate, a U.S.-licensed doctor will authorize a prescription, which can be filled promptly. Products often ship the same day, in fact! To get started, click here to go to eDrugstore’s Erectile Dysfunction page, which contains additional information about all ED drugs available, including Cialis.
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