Cialis 5mg: Uses, Dosage, Side Effects and Price

• Cialis 5mg is one of two licensed once daily tadalafil strengths, and the only strength that also holds the UK licence for benign prostatic hyperplasia.
• 5mg Cialis is licensed for once-daily use; 10mg and 20mg are the licensed as-needed strengths for erectile dysfunction.
• Generic tadalafil 5mg is from £23.99 for 28 tablets at EveryDayMeds, a standard price.
• Cialis and tadalafil at 5 mg contain the same active substance at the same strength

Cialis 5mg is a tadalafil tablet licensed in the UK for erectile dysfunction treatment and, at this strength only, for the signs and symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia. It belongs to the once daily side of the tadalafil range rather than the take it before you need it.

That last point causes more confusion than anything else about this tablet. Tadalafil is licensed at four strengths for erectile dysfunction: 2.5mg, 5mg, 10mg and 20mg. NICE records that 2.5mg and 5mg are the strengths approved for continuous everyday use, while 10mg and 20mg are the as needed strengths. 5mg Cialis is therefore a daily tablet, and the question of whether to take it daily or only when needed does not really have two answers.

Understanding that reframes almost every other question here. How long it lasts, whether it is enough, how it compares with 10mg, what it costs a month: all of those change meaning once you know you are looking at a daily regimen rather than a single dose.

The spelling varies more than the tablet does. Cialis 5 mg, 5mg Cialis, Cialis five mg and tadalafil 5mg all describe the same thing, and the branded and generic versions contain the same active substance tadalafil at the same strength. Results vary between individuals.

Cialis improves blood flow by relaxing blood vessels, which helps to get an erection when the user is stimulated. It is important to note that Cialis 5mg is not suitable for adolescents and should only be used by adult men following a thorough clinical assessment.Tadalafil is also used for pulmonary arterial hypertension, but this is a separate indication with different dosing and prescribing considerations.

Users should be aware that drinking alcohol or grapefruit juice while taking Cialis can affect blood alcohol level and may reduce the medication’s effectiveness or increase side effects. Excessive alcohol consumption can increase the risk of dizziness and low blood pressure, while grapefruit juice may affect tadalafil exposure and should be used with caution.

Cialis tablets should be stored properly and kept out of reach of children. The recommended dose is one Cialis tablet daily, and taking more than the dose remains unsafe. Serious allergic reactions or serious skin rashes are rare but require immediate medical assistance. If a possibly painful erection or sudden decrease in vision or hearing occurs, seek urgent help.

When ordering Cialis 5mg online, it is essential to use a legitimate online doctor service or registered pharmacy to ensure genuine medication and safe prescribing. The active ingredient tadalafil is supplied by reputable manufacturers such as Eli Lilly Nederland and Eli Lilly, ensuring quality and safety for users.

In cases of uncontrolled high blood pressure or serious heart disease, Cialis 5mg is contraindicated. Patients with disorders affecting blood flow, such as sickle cell anaemia or severe kidney or liver problems, should discuss treatment suitability with their doctor. Cialis is also not recommended for those with a history of sudden cardiac death or penile bleeding.

Start Your Free Assessment

Key things to know

• Tadalafil is licensed for erectile dysfunction at 2.5mg, 5mg, 10mg and 20mg.
• NICE records 2.5mg and 5mg as the strengths approved for continuous, everyday use.
• The 5mg tablet alone holds the separate UK licence for benign prostatic hyperplasia, granted in October 2012.
• NICE describes the 5mg dose as taken approximately at the same time every day, with or without food.
• Steady state plasma concentrations are attained within 5 days of once daily dosing.
• The mean half-life of tadalafil is 17.5 hours in people who are healthy.
• The maximum is one tablet in any 24 hours, and two 2.5mg tablets are not a route to 5mg.
• Nitrates, nitric oxide donors and riociguat are absolute contraindications.
• Tadalafil is a prescription only medicine at every strength in the UK.

What is Cialis 5mg used for?

Cialis 5mg is licensed for two things: erectile dysfunction, and the signs and symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia. No other tadalafil strength holds both licences.

Cialis 5 mg for erectile dysfunction

This is the licence most people arrive looking for. Taken as a once daily tablet, 5mg Cialis maintains a continuous level of tadalafil rather than being taken ahead of an occasion.

NICE records that "although PDE5 inhibitors were introduced as on-demand treatment, tadalafil has also been approved for continuous, everyday use at 2.5 mg and 5 mg doses". The daily route is a separate licensed regimen, not the same medicine taken more often, and it changes the decision point: on an as needed regimen you decide each time, on a daily regimen you decide once.

Cialis 5 mg for benign prostatic hyperplasia

Benign prostatic hyperplasia is non cancerous enlargement of the prostate. It can produce lower urinary tract symptoms: a weaker stream, hesitancy, urgency, needing to go more often, and getting up at night. NICE records this indication as granted in October 2012 and applies to the "5 mg tablet only", so 2.5mg, 10mg and 20mg do not hold it.

The mechanism is the same enzyme in different tissues. NICE describes how "inhibition of PDE5 causes relaxation in the vascular supply of the prostate and bladder", which is why one molecule can carry two licences.

If prostate symptoms are part of your picture, say so at consultation. It is the one place in the tadalafil range where the strength question has a clear regulatory answer attached to it.

Cialis 5mg is licensed for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia, it is not used to treat fungal infections or prostate cancer.Patients with severe renal or hepatic impairment require particular medical assessment because once-daily tadalafil 5mg may not be appropriate in these circumstances.

This treatment is intended to treat adult men and is not suitable for adolescents. The medication should be stored in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and out of reach of children.

Cialis 5mg works best when the user is sexually stimulated. Cialis works by increasing blood flow to the penile tissue, facilitating such an erection that supports intercourse. The daily regimen allows for spontaneous intimacy without the need to plan doses around activity.

In summary, Cialis 5mg is a unique treatment option that can simultaneously treat benign prostatic hyperplasia and erectile dysfunction symptoms in adult men, providing continuous support when sexually stimulated. Its use should always be under medical supervision, especially in patients with the same symptoms or health conditions affecting liver or kidney function.

Start Your Free Assessment

How Cialis 5mg tablets work

Tadalafil is a selective, reversible inhibitor of cyclic guanosine monophosphate specific phosphodiesterase type 5, usually shortened to PDE5. Cialis is a brand name for tadalafil, and generic versions are sold as tadalafil 5mg tablets.

Cyclic guanosine monophosphate, or cGMP, is a signalling molecule that relaxes the smooth muscle in blood vessel walls, and PDE5 is the enzyme that breaks it down. Relaxed vessel walls widen, and wider vessels carry more blood.

Inhibiting PDE5 lets the cGMP signal last longer than it otherwise would. The important detail is what that does not do: the medicine does not create the signal, it extends one the body produces in response to nitric oxide.

Cialis 5mg dosage

For the licensed once-daily 5mg regimen, the recommended dose is one 5mg tablet approximately at the same time each day.

NICE describes the 5mg dose as "taken approximately at the same time every day with or without food", and records that for benign prostatic hyperplasia "tadalafil should be taken regularly once a day". Food is not a constraint on either indication.

Nothing here sets a dose for you. Treatment suitability depends on an individual clinical assessment, and your prescriber will determine the appropriate treatment.

Cialis 5mg daily or as needed?

Daily. 5mg is a once daily strength, and the as needed strengths are 10mg and 20mg.

The phrase assumes a choice the licence does not offer. NICE places 2.5mg and 5mg on the continuous everyday use side and 10mg and 20mg on the as needed side, so taking a 5mg tablet only occasionally is not the regimen it was authorised or studied for.

This matters beyond the paperwork. A daily regimen works by holding a level, and a level cannot be held by intermittent doses. Taking 5mg intermittently is not the licensed once-daily regimen for which the available evidence was established.

How long does Cialis 5mg take to work?

Two separate clocks run on this tablet, and mixing them up causes most of the early disappointment. A single dose acts within hours: NICE records tadalafil as "effective from 30 minutes after administration", with peak efficacy "after about 2 hours". The daily regimen takes days, because steady state plasma concentrations "are attained within 5 days of once daily dosing".

The 17.5 hour half-life makes the accumulation possible. Each tablet arrives while much of the previous one is still in the body, so the level rises for a few days and then flattens.

How long does Cialis 5mg last?

NICE records tadalafil efficacy as "maintained for up to 36 hours". That figure describes the duration of action of a tadalafil dose, and it is the number behind the medicine's reputation for lasting a long time.

On a once daily regimen, though, duration stops being the useful measure. You are not waiting for a dose to wear off, because the next one arrives before it does. The relevant question on 5mg Cialis is not how long a tablet lasts but whether the daily level is being maintained. Where the 36 hour figure genuinely matters is on the as needed strengths, where a single dose has to cover an occasion on its own.

If you miss a dose

Take the next tablet at your usual time. Never take two tablets to make up for a missed one, and never take more than one tablet in any 24 hours. One missed day is a minor event on a medicine with a 17.5 hour half-life, but a pattern of missed days is worth raising at review.

Is Cialis 5mg enough?

The honest answer is that the published UK regulatory and NICE sources used here do not contain an effectiveness percentage for 5mg, so the question cannot be settled with a number.

That absence is worth stating plainly, because the figures people find and apply to 5mg are not 5mg figures. NICE records efficacy of 67% at 10mg and 81% at 20mg, and both describe as needed dosing at as needed strengths. Carrying either across to a daily 5mg tablet compares two different strengths and two different regimens at once.

What can be said about whether 5 mg Cialis is enough:

• It is a fully licensed strength for both of its indications, not a reduced or starter version of something else
• It is the strength at which the published daily use studies NICE records were conducted
• It is the only strength licensed for prostate symptoms
• Whether it suits you individually is a prescriber judgement, not something a percentage settles

Two things come before concluding a strength is not working. The regimen needs five days to reach steady state, so a judgement made in the first few days is a judgement about an incomplete level. And a PDE5 inhibitor extends a response rather than creating one, so circumstances still matter.

If you have given it a fair run and it is not doing what you hoped, that is a consultation rather than a self adjustment.

Cialis 5mg vs 10mg

These are not two rungs on one ladder. They are two different regimens, and moving between them changes how the medicine is taken as well as how much of it you take.

The efficacy row is the one to read carefully. The 67% figure belongs to 10mg taken as needed and cannot be moved onto a daily tablet, and the absence of a matching figure at 5mg is an absence in these sources rather than evidence of anything.

Which regimen suits a person depends on how treatment is actually used. Someone who wants no timing decision and takes tablets reliably fits the daily route; someone who needs treatment occasionally fits the as needed route. Only the 5mg daily tablet carries the prostate licence, which is the one point where the comparison has a clinical answer rather than a preference.

Start Your Free Assessment

Cialis 5mg side effects

The adverse effect profile belongs to tadalafil rather than to a particular strength. The figures below come from a 12 week study of tadalafil 5mg daily in 212 men with lower urinary tract symptoms, so they describe this strength directly.

In that study 30.7%, which is 65 of 212 participants, reported one or more treatment emergent adverse events. 5.7% stopped treatment because of one, and 0.5%, a single participant, reported a serious adverse event. Read together, that means roughly two thirds reported nothing at all, and of the third who did, the large majority carried on.

A 1 year extension followed 427 men on the same strength. Over that period 57.6% reported one or more treatment emergent adverse events, most classed as mild at 44% or moderate at 45%. Serious adverse events were reported in 4.7%, and two cases were considered possibly related to treatment: one worsening of coronary heart disease and one episode of global amnesia.

Reporting roughly doubled across the longer window, which is what a longer observation period produces. The discontinuation figure carries the information, because it barely moved. That is not the same as side effects reducing over time, and no source used here states that they do.

Headache, flushing and nasal or sinus congestion are recognised adverse effects associated with tadalafil and other PDE5 inhibitors.

Who should not take 5mg Cialis

Tadalafil is contraindicated in patients receiving nitrates. It is also contraindicated in cardiac disease where exertion is inadvisable, in non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy, and after recent stroke, unstable angina, recent myocardial infarction or recent New York Heart Association class 2 or greater heart failure. Riociguat is a further absolute contraindication across this class.

Alpha blockers prescribed for the prostate, including alfuzosin, doxazosin and tamsulosin, need prescriber assessment because both they and tadalafil lower blood pressure. Tadalafil can enhance the blood-pressure-lowering effect of some antihypertensive medicines, so concomitant treatment should be considered by the prescriber. Potent CYP3A4 inhibitors can increase tadalafil exposure, so tadalafil should be used with caution and appropriate prescribing restrictions may apply. This medicine should only be used under the supervision of an appropriately qualified prescriber.

Cialis 5mg price

These are standard prices at EveryDayMeds, quoted before any code or offer. The per tablet figure is calculated from each pack price.

At the 28 tablet pack the branded product costs about 3.8 times as much per tablet as the generic at the same strength. That multiple is arithmetic from the two prices shown rather than a claim about either product.

Cialis 5mg tablets and tadalafil 5mg tablets: what differs

Both contain the same active substance at the same strength. A UK generic must have the same active substance as the reference medicinal product, the same pharmaceutical form, and must be shown bioequivalent to it. What differs is the name, the manufacturer, the tablet's appearance, the inactive ingredients and the price. Prices are standard prices and may change.

One piece of arithmetic surprises most people. Generic tadalafil 5mg costs less per tablet than generic tadalafil 2.5mg at the same pack size, £0.86 against £1.25 for 28 tablets. The lower strength is the more expensive one here, which removes cost from the question of which daily strength is appropriate. That question is clinical.

On a once daily regimen, 28 tablets is four weeks, 56 is eight and 84 is twelve. At the 84 pack rate taken every day, generic tadalafil 5 mg comes to about £269.36 over twelve months. Which quantity you are supplied follows from the assessment rather than from this table.

Buy Cialis 5mg online

You can buy Cialis 5mg online in the UK, but only from a registered pharmacy and only after a clinical assessment. Tadalafil is a prescription-only medicine in the UK and should be supplied following an appropriate clinical assessment and prescription.

1. You complete an online consultation covering your medical history, current medicines, blood pressure and heart health.
2. A UK registered prescriber reviews it and decides whether treatment is appropriate, and at which strength and quantity.
3. If approved, the pharmacy dispenses and dispatches the medicine.

The order runs that way round for a reason. The assessment determines whether there is anything to dispense, and it can conclude that treatment is not appropriate for you.

How to check a pharmacy is genuinely registered

• A registered pharmacy displays its GPhC registration number and names its superintendent pharmacist.
• That registration can be checked on the regulator's own register rather than taken on trust.
• A legitimate service assesses before it supplies, and can decline.
• Prescription only medicines are never sold without a prescription, at any strength.

EveryDayMeds is a GPhC registered pharmacy. Treatment is supplied only after clinical assessment, and all medication is genuine and UK sourced.

Start Your Free Assessment

Cialis 5mg reviews: what they can and cannot tell you

Two limits are worth naming. An account written in the first week describes a level still climbing rather than the treatment, because steady state takes around five days. And there is a selection effect: the delighted and the frustrated both tend to write something, while people for whom treatment quietly became routine mostly do not.

The published studies are a better guide because they have a denominator. Two thirds of participants in the 12 week study reported no adverse event at all, and no collection of individual accounts gives you a figure like that.

When to seek urgent help

• An erection lasting more than 4 hours needs immediate medical attention
• Sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes, or sudden loss or reduction of hearing, means stopping treatment and being seen urgently
• Chest pain during or after use is an emergency, and you must tell whoever treats you that you have taken tadalafil, because nitrates must not be given
• Fainting or collapse needs assessment

Medical Disclaimer

This article is for general information only and is not medical advice. It does not replace an assessment by a qualified healthcare professional. Treatment suitability depends on an individual clinical assessment. Your prescriber will determine the appropriate treatment. This medicine should only be used under the supervision of an appropriately qualified prescriber. Results vary between individuals.

Nothing here instructs you to take a particular strength, quantity or frequency, or to change an existing regimen. There is no titration schedule on this page. The guidance here does not replace the instructions on your dispensing label or in the patient information leaflet supplied with your pack, and where they differ you should follow your prescriber and your leaflet.

The adverse event figures relate to tadalafil 5mg taken daily, in the studies named, in the participant numbers stated, in a lower urinary tract symptoms population. The efficacy figures of 67% and 81% relate to 10mg and 20mg taken as needed and are not transferable to a daily 5mg tablet. No effectiveness percentage for 5mg appears in the sources used here, and the statement that no source describes side effects reducing over time is an absence in those sources rather than an assurance either way. Potent CYP3A4 inhibitors can increase tadalafil exposure and require caution with prescribing consideration.

Do not start, stop or change the strength or frequency of any prescribed medicine because of this page. Never take more than one tablet in any 24 hours, never take two tablets of a lower strength to make a higher one, and never double up after a missed dose. Never combine tadalafil with a nitrate, a nitric oxide donor or riociguat. Suspected side effects can be reported through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. Seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours, chest pain, fainting, or sudden loss of vision or hearing.