Viagra: The New Heating Pad

Researchers have found that sildenafil citrate, the main ingredient in Viagra, Revatio and other drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction, can also be used to alleviate moderate to severe menstrual cramping in women.

“It seems counterintuitive, but what sildenafil citrate does is dilate blood vessels,” said Richard Legro, a gynecologist at Penn State College of Medicine and one of the authors of the study. “It leads to an erection in men, but in women, we think it can be an effective treatment for acute menstrual pain.”

A very small study (just 25 women) out of Penn State found that the active ingredient in erectile dysfunction drugs may help relieve pelvic pain during menstruation. ONE CATCH: They’ve tried this before, with Viagra, and found that the accompanying side effects (headaches, namely; also probably the discomfort that comes with the very idea of taking Viagra) weren’t really worth the tradeoff, so this time they tried inserting it vaginally. Whatever works. [LA Times, original study]