Viagra use in Sweden: Trends, statistics & popularity

It didn’t take too long for Pfizer’s Viagra to spread to all the corners of the world. Based on the newly-discovered active ingredient sildenafil, the first PDE-5 inhibitor to be discovered, “the little blue pill” revolutionized impotence treatment, setting the standard for all the medicines that followed. Surely enough it stormed both the European and American markets in the late 1990s after it was approved both by the EMA and FDA, eventually finding its way to Scandinavia.

As a part of our serious of articles on the statistics of Viagra use in Nordic countries, here we will explore how the position of world’s most famous impotence pill changed on the Swedish markets over the course of the last decade. Starting with 2007 and moving towards 2017, we will take a look at the changes in the prevalence of Viagra use in Sweden and the distribution of this ED treatment among various age groups.

What’s on this page?

Prevalence of Viagra use in Sweden 2007-2017

By relying on the official data provided by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, we will try to discover the trends and patterns in the changes in the number of patients using “the little blue pill” over the last decade. At the same time, we will use this raw data to precisely calculate the changes in prevalence of Viagra use. The results can be displayed in the following form:

As is evident, the demand for Viagra in Sweden is constantly on the rise in the last decade (with the exception of 2012 when the use decreased by 1.28%). This trend is in line with those noticed in most other European countries and is often explained by interaction of a couple of different factors. However, in order to give a more precise analysis, we will divide this ten years long period into two distinct segments, with 2013 being the point where we’ll make the “cut”.

Viagra in Sweden before 2013

Prior to 2013, Viagra consumption in Sweden was on the rise, as in the rest of Europe. This is commonly explained by several factors. First of all, Viagra wasn’t always such an icon of popular culture as it is now. Impotence and different problems closely related to erectile dysfunction were, for long time, stigmatized and people often opted not to seek medical help due to embarrassment. Even today, this topic is somewhat uncomfortable to talk about, but people are significantly more ready to seek out help, especially when solutions as efficient as Viagra are widely available.

At the same time and parallel to the increased awareness of the existence of effective impotence treatment, the lack of changes to modern sedentary lifestyle caused an overall increase in impotence-related issues throughout the western world, making erectile dysfunction an issue that affects an ever-growing number of men. Thus, with the greater availability of treatment and less taboo surrounding the topic, the greater need for treatment also influenced this steady rise.

Viagra consumers increase after 2013

By simply looking at the table presented above, we can easily notice that the greatest increase in prevalence of Viagra use in Sweden in the last decade was recorded in 2014. In comparison with 2013, the number of Viagra users increased by staggering 23.2% in just one year! So, what happened?

This was the year when Viagra finally went generic! Pfizer’s patent expired in 2013 so other manufacturers were finally free to produce and legally sell generic versions of the medicine, provided they can present the proof of bioequivalence. This means that the generic version needs to be absolutely identical to the branded, “original” one in terms of active ingredient, its concentration, effectiveness, available dosages, side effects and all other relevant aspects. However, usually the generic versions are significantly cheaper than the branded ones, making them significantly more affordable.

This is why we can notice a similar peak in prevalence of Viagra use throughout the western world in 2014, as more men got interested into trying sildenafil-based treatment and Viagra alternatives, once they became more affordable for an ordinary guy. So, it would seem that Swedish men are rather careful with their budgets when it comes to investing in impotence treatment!

Viagra use in Sweden per age

Another interesting statistic that we can easily find is the number of Viagra users in Sweden per age group. Bellow, we will present another table detailing the number of patients using sildenafil-based medicines for each age group, while also calculating the percentage of the total number of users for each group. In this way, we can see which groups comprise the majority of Viagra users in Sweden.

Not surprisingly, it would seem that men aged somewhere between 65 and 69 make up the most of Viagra users, more precisely, 17.11%. If we would take a look at this data from a different perspective, we could try and get to a broader group. By crunching down the numbers, we arrive to the conclusion that men aged between 50 and 70 make up for as much as 54.21% of all Viagra users in Sweden. Combining these two facts, we can deduce that Viagra use in this Nordic country is most prevalent among older men – this is not surprising, but in comparison with some other European states, it would seem that older men from Sweden are significantly more sexually active as compared to men from some other EU countries.