They say the Health Service is wasting tens of millions of pounds every year on tablets which don't treat the cause of the problem.
Many of the men handed prescriptions by their GP are actually suffering from low testosterone levels, which cannot be treated by Viagra alone. This is because the impotence pill depends on those using it having sufficient levels of the sex hormone for it to work.
Not working: Doctors have warned that Viagra doesn't work for more than half the men who take it
Instead, doctors recommend that men should have a blood test to determine their levels of testosterone.
If found to be low, it can be easily treated with testosterone pills, patches and gels, which are all relatively inexpensive.
The NHS spends around £58million a year on handing out more than 17million repeat prescriptions for Viagra and other impotence drugs.
Low testosterone affects 40 per cent of the one in five men who suffer some form of impotence.
Although levels of the hormone start to decline with age, some are affected much earlier than others.
In demand: The NHS spends around £58 million a year on handing out more than 17 million repeat prescriptions for Viagra
It can also be a symptom of an underlying health condition such as diabetes and heart disease, so experts say it is crucial that it is properly diagnosed.
Typical symptoms include tiredness, mood swings, insomnia - as well as low sex drive, the reason most will visit their doctor. But sexual health experts warn that many GPs are prescribing Viagra by default rather than diagnosing the root cause of the problem.
Dr Geoffrey Hackett, a consultant urologist at Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham, and former chairman of the British Society for Sexual Medicine, said that more than half of men taking Viagra found it did not solve their problems adequately.
Men with sexual problems could be 'wasting hundreds of pounds on tablets' when their real problem is low testosterone.
'Viagra will only work if there are sufficient levels of testosterone,' said Dr Hackett. 'Everybody thinks that Viagra is the panacea for all sexual problems, it's not.
'If low testosterone is the problem then Viagra won't be the answer on its own. There is a lot being wasted on this in the NHS, particularly in diabetes patients.
He said that by contrast, drugs to replace levels of testosterone 'can change the lives of patients'. Most men who use Viagra buy it themselves from a pharmacy - at a cost of £55 for four tablets - although they have first to pay for a private prescription from their GP.
But men can get it on the NHS if they suffer from conditions including diabetes, kidney failure, multiple sclerosis Parkinson's disease, polio and prostate cancer, or if they are able to show that their impotence is causing them severe psychological distress. ( dailymail.co.uk )
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