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In 1964, 18-year-old Sara Martin (not her real name) visited three gynecologists in the small Illinois town where she was attending college before she found one who would prescribe the newly available birth control pill to her, an unmarried woman. “That little pill changed the sex lives of a whole generation,” says Sara. “It certainly changed mine.”

Fully 40 years later, another pill is recharging her sex life. Thanks to Viagra, she and her husband of two decades are able to enjoy a passionate physical relationship in spite of a chronic medical condition that made it difficult for him to function sexually. “The pill changed my thinking when I was young by making me feel I had a right to enjoy sex without the fear of pregnancy,” says Sara, now a public relations consultant in Chicago. “The medication my husband is taking now means that age and illness don’t have to mean the end of sex. This is not about pill popping, it’s about our expectation that sex should always be a joyous and important part of life.”