Hims Reviews: Are Hims' products and services legit?

As the telehealth landscape expands, you might find it hard to know which outlet will provide you with the best services. If you’re a man of just about any age, then Hims aims to be the premier choice for many of your basic health needs. The company offers to help you stop a receding hairline in its tracks, enhance your sexual performance, maintain healthy, young-looking skin, and even address your primary care and psychological needs.

You might recognize Hims primarily for its hair loss and erectile dysfunction treatments, but its relatively recent additions position it to be a serious player for other men’s health treatments, as well. Is Hims the right choice for you? We did the testing and comparative research to help you decide.

Hims has grown to provide men with a wide array of consultation, prescription, and wellness services. And Hims succeeds as a highly convenient provider of effective prescription treatments with a very customer-friendly system. Prices for individual products and services are competitive, though some are hard to find on the site. Costs can add up quickly if you need to address a handful of issues or tackle one major problem (like hair loss) comprehensively.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service we review, including Hims. All told, our team has spent over 860 hours testing and researching the products and services of Hims and its chief competitors in order to provide an accurate, unbiased analysis of how they compare. We've ordered and tried these products for ourselves.

Given the breadth of health concerns Hims seeks to address, we also spent nearly 400 hours consuming hundreds of scholarly articles pertaining to hair loss, erectile dysfunction, mental health, and more. Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions to live healthier lifestyles.

We evaluated Hims on objective criteria like cost and efficiency and the effectiveness of its goods and services. We gave slightly more weight to well-established products like its hair loss system than its more nascent offerings like sex toys. Our last evaluation criterion (customer support) may not have been as strongly weighted as others, but it still had a noticeable influence on our overall regard for Hims, and that’s the company’s customer service.

Cost

Costs will vary widely depending on the treatments you seek, but most of Hims’ offerings are reasonably priced when compared to other choices in the marketplace. Over-the-counter products run about 50-80% less expensive than you’d find at retail. And prescription offerings are priced competitively, though prices for these can be hard to find on the website. In contrast, a company like Roman — one of Hims’ chief competitors — has a dedicated pricing page to increase transparency.

In some cases, Hims’ pricing clearly wins out, while in others, it lags behind the deals offered by competitors. Sometimes, both things are true within the same category. For example, Hims has one of the lowest prices for daily tadalafil (generic Cialis) on the market; Hims is our top recommendation for getting a tadalafil prescription. But its sildenafil prices pale in comparison to options from companies like BlueChew.

Here’s a quick comparison from the ED sector:

Hair loss treatments follow a similar pattern, with Hims offering some compelling deals on certain medications — for instance, its topical finasteride and minoxidil combo — while its competitors occasionally undercut its pricing on others.

Hims offers a prescription anti-aging cream for a relatively low monthly rate when you start your subscription. You can also get a 1-ounce bottle of its vitamin C serum for $33. Compared to a similar serum by Kiehl’s — a popular retail skincare brand — that costs nearly $80 for less than double the quantity, the savings are obvious.

Things can get a lot more complicated when you start creating comprehensive treatment plans for hair loss or erectile dysfunction, as costs can add up quickly. There are also different billing and shipment options, but we’ll get deeper into Hims’ pricing nuances below.

Products and services

Hims offers a generous amount of products and prescriptions. On the product side, it sometimes focuses on one or two treatments for a given issue. Hims primarily offers finasteride and minoxidil for hair loss, along with supplemental products like biotin gummies and thickening shampoo.

Other ailments, especially sexual ones, can require a different approach. With your doctor’s guidance, you can try different prescriptions for things like ED or premature ejaculation until you find the one that’s right for you. Hims currently offers nine prescription options for erectile dysfunction and five products for premature ejaculation, two of which require a prescription.

In addition to its product lines and prescription access, Hims used to offer primary care and mental health care services. Mental health care included psychiatry and group therapy, as well as one-on-one counseling. Unfortunately, it has since discontinued most of these services. You can still acquire some medication for anxiety or depression through Hims, but that’s it.

Hims also used to have a primary care offering that admitted patients for just $39/visit, regardless of insurance status. You could put in for a reimbursement later. Those visits could result in any prescription a doctor could have prescribed in person, but that service has also recently been removed from the site.

Hims isn’t alone in trimming these services, either. Roman used to offer comparable services, but they are also no longer available.

Like many companies these days, Hims also offers medication for weight loss, but these are not the popular GLP-1 receptor agonists like Wegovy or Ozempic. Rather, they’re oral medications that typically act as appetite suppressants.

Hims’ sexual health offerings continue to expand faster than anything else the company offers. The company recently introduced chewable versions of its popular ED and hair loss drugs in an attempt to compete with BlueChew’s chewable ED tablets. And Hims has released several sex toys while partnering with other companies to provide things like high-end condoms and lubricant.

Efficiency

Judging Hims' efficiency, we looked at how easy it was to get started, how quickly we could receive products or medications, and how readily available customer service was for questions. With a few minor caveats, this is one of the areas where the company excels.

Clicking on just about any product line will bring you right into a fast and easy consultation. From there, you can see products (prescription and non-prescription) that help you address your needs. Then, you can speak to a doctor for more advice or to get a prescription written. That said, if you want to get to product information and not a consultation, you might have to poke around the site a little more than you would on a competitor platform like Roman.

The speed at which you receive the products will have a bit to do with the products in question and where exactly you live, but most customers receive their orders within a few business days. That’s not bad, but Roman shipments have typically arrived with our testers within 48 hours of purchase from either U.S. coast.

Customer support

Hims doesn’t exactly plaster customer service options on every page (we had to dig for them), but it has friendly and knowledgeable representatives who can help you with just about anything in short order. Also, Hims has some of the best hold music in the business.

In one instance, a representative actually spelled out a way to get as-needed tadalafil for a much lower price than you’ll find almost anywhere by leveraging a specific prescription level and Hims’ penalty-free cancelation process. We’ll get into that a bit later.

There is a live chat option that’s staffed by extremely knowledgeable employees, as well, but you have to go to the help center page to find it, the button for which is at the bottom of the main pages. Otherwise, you’d never know it was there. This seems like less of an oversight and more of a targeted way to reduce the amount of inquiries the live chat team has to address.

Roman, by contrast, offers neither phone nor chat support and relies solely on email to interface with its customers. We found this slow and frustrating when comparing companies directly in our guide to the best ED medications. Hims’ customer service is noticeably superior.

Hims is a telehealth company that offers subscription services to target hair loss, sexual dysfunction (like ED and premature ejaculation), skincare, and more.

Hims delivers its products right to your door, including some prescriptions for skincare. However, Hims pharmacies can’t service some regions, either for regulatory reasons or due to a lack of reach in its pharmacy infrastructure. In those instances, you’ll have to go through your local pharmacy.

Hims' product lines

Products and services available through Hims exist in distinct categories you’ll find at the top of the home page. Those categories are:

• Sexual Health
• Hair
• Skin
• Weight loss
• Everyday health

We’ll explore Hims’ array of services and products more deeply in sections below.

Hims’ sister site

While Hims intends its products and services for men, the company also has a sister site for women called Hers. You won’t find any erectile dysfunction medication there, but Hers offers a litany of products ideal for women, including birth control, yeast infection treatments, and more.

At the moment, there don’t seem to be any plans to create a gender-neutral equivalent to the Hims/Hers binary, but representatives told us that anyone could create an account based on their gender rather than their assigned sex. They can then speak with their doctor about any treatments from either site that might be appropriate for them.

Hims company standing and customer reviews

Hims is an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau and boasts an A+ rating from the organization. Customer reviews there deliver 3.89 stars, which is just below our rating of the company and likely skewed by the overabundance of negative reviews the internet naturally elicits.

The portrait of Hims on Trustpilot is similar, with a 3.3 overall rating — though that is down from 3.8 as of our last review. Both sites boast more than 1,000 reviews each, so there are certainly going to be negative reviews. These typically stem from certain medications not working to a given customer’s satisfaction. There are also reviews referencing the melting of gummy supplements, which our testers experienced, as well.

Hims treats men for several common sexual health conditions. Men sometimes find these subjects challenging to discuss in person in a doctor’s office, which is one reason so many men prefer the privacy of a telemedicine approach for issues like erectile dysfunction (ED)

Hims addresses ED with an array of medications, many available for a fraction of the price you would pay via traditional routes. Pills designed for daily use arrive regularly on a subscription plan. Those intended for use soon before intercourse are billed per anticipated monthly use and come in quantities determined by you and your doctor.

All of Hims ED medications are PDE-5 inhibitors.1 These drugs prevent an enzyme from signaling to your body that it’s time for an erection to stop. In men with ED, these signals can be mistimed and cause an erection to subside before climax or prevent an erection from occurring in the first place.

Hims offers a wider array of these treatment options than its close competitors. Here’s a quick look at the ED medications you can get from Hims:

We recommend men new to ED medications start with the regular generics. There really is no good reason to reach for more expensive versions of the same drugs unless you’ve had success with them in the past and are wary of switching things up. Again, though, the FDA mandates that these generic versions be therapeutically identical to the branded original.

Hims offers many of its ED medications in monthly allotments ranging from 4-16 doses, with a few exceptions in available tadalafil and Stendra doses.

Here’s a quick breakdown of prices for commonly prescribed doses of Hims’ ED medications.

Pricing for tadalafil (generic for Cialis)

Pricing for sildenafil (generic for Viagra)

Pricing for Stendra (branded avanafil)

Of all these medications, daily tadalafil offers the best deal, especially for men who only need to take 2.5mg as needed to achieve an erection. Those men can subscribe to a yearly delivery of 5mg tadalafil at $384, bringing the cost per pill down to $1.07. They can then break those pills in half and pay only $0.54 per 2.5mg dose. Of course, that kind of dose manipulation should only be performed with the informed consent of your doctor.

Hims Hard Mints

One of Hims’ most successful competitors in the ED space is a company called BlueChew. BlueChew pioneered chewable tablet forms of sildenafil and tadalafil, and it’s recently added vardenafil to its lineup. Despite the novel formulation of these drugs, the company has managed to keep its prices decidedly low.

To compete with BlueChew, Hims released its own chewable ED medication called Hard Mints. These contained either vardenafil or a combination of vardenafil and tadalafil. The company has since expanded its chewable offerings under the banner of Sex Chews, including a tadalafil-only option and a combination of tadalafil and sildenafil. At this time, as-needed versions of single-ingredient chews are still a bit pricier than the BlueChew alternative, but daily tadalafil chews offer a deal similarly profound as Hims tadalafil tablets. And BlueChew doesn’t offer a combination therapy at this time.

For now, if you’re new to ED medications or interested in chewable ED medications for the first time, we still recommend BlueChew, as they give our readers the option to try their product for free.

An erection is a fine thing to have, but if you suffer from premature ejaculation, it can feel like all that engorgement is going to waste. And you don’t have to have clinically diagnosed premature ejaculation to experience the shame and performance anxiety finishing early can bring.5

Fortunately, Hims addresses PE with several effective treatments used either separately or in combination.

Delay spray and wipes

Hims partnered with Promescent, the originators of one of the safest, most reliable delay products on the market, to supply them with a delay spray and delay wipes. These products apply a small amount of topical anesthetic to the penis, numbing it enough to increase ejaculation latency time (ELT) but not enough to take away the pleasurable feelings involved in sex.

Climax delay spray can transfer to others for up to 15 minutes, so make sure to let it set before intercourse — especially if you’re in a relationship and not using condoms. It doesn’t matter how long you last if your partner can’t feel you.

Here’s a quick comparison of the two products:

Between the spray and the wipes, we recommend most men start with the spray and see how well it works for them. It’s less expensive per use and easier to titrate than the wipes. However, Promescent, the company that manufactures Hims spray and wipes, sells its own branded version for less than Hims charges. So, you can get the identical product for less from Promescent. Roman also offers wipes but at a weaker 4% benzocaine solution.

A third practical delay product not made by Promescent recently entered Hims’ catalog: its Climax Delay Condoms. These use the same benzocaine you’ll find in the company’s delay wipes, but at a slightly higher concentration.

Prescription SSRIs

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of antidepressants that increase the amount of serotonin circulating in your system. They’ve long been studied as a potential solution for premature ejaculation, and they’ve had a lot of success in that department.9 But they also offer more potential side effects than the topical anesthetics you’ll find in the wipes and sprays.

Here’s a look at the two SSRIs Hims offers for premature ejaculation:

A 3-month supply of either medication ships quarterly for $72. This is identical to the price you’d pay for Roman’s sertraline, and you can’t get paroxetine from Roman.

Sildenafil for PE

Several studies have pointed out that certain ED medications can also delay orgasm in men, so Hims offers sildenafil (the generic form of Viagra) among its PE treatments.12 But doctors won’t typically recommend the use of ED medications for PE in men without concurrent erectile dysfunction, at least not before other treatment paths have been exhausted. There are too many potential side effects associated with ED meds, including the development of psychogenic ED in men who previously had no history of dysfunction.29

Roman offers both sildenafil and tadalafil (as well as branded Cialis and Viagra) for PE at a similar cost to Hims.

Along with the aforementioned treatments for ED and PE, Hims also provides a prescription treatment for cold sores and a lineup of self-care products.

Cold sores and oral herpes

Cold sores can feel embarrassing — and be more contagious — when they flare up. After a free online doctor’s consultation, Hims can prescribe valacyclovir (generic Valtrex), the leading FDA-approved drug to suppress and treat outbreaks.13

Valacyclovir is an antiviral suppressive drug approved by the FDA to treat herpes simplex 1, also known as HSV-1. Unlike creams available over the counter, valacyclovir is a pill known to reduce the duration and severity of cold sores if taken in the first 24 hours after they appear. Hims offers three as-needed doses (either 500mg or 2,000mg) for $60.

If you have outbreaks regularly and need more aggressive treatment, a daily formulation is available that can help prevent cold sores from developing. You can get a 90- or 180-day supply for $117 and $198, respectively. That’s either $1.30 or $1.10, depending on your billing cycle. These are only available at a 500mg dose, whereas Roman offers a 1,00mg daily suppressive treatment for a lower price ($87 for 90 days or $144 for 180 days).

Sexual wellness products

Hims’ line of sexual wellness products, including toys, lubricant, and condoms, has continued to expand over the years; the company seems to add a new product or two every year. One of the most recent additions is a prostate massager that has some features we haven’t seen in competitor models.

Promescent, a company that started with a delay spray and branched out to toys and then ED treatments, makes an interesting comparison point to Hims, which started out with ED meds and evolved to offer delay products and toys. Roman does not have a toy lineup.

Here’s a quick look at Hims’ current sex toy and accessory lineup:

This is nowhere near as exhaustive a selection as you’ll find on Promescent’s site, but it’s worth noting that Promescent serves more as a marketplace for other brands and doesn’t yet sell any of its own toys. That means toy prices are often higher, though accessories like lubricant and condoms are often lower.

Hims’ hair loss program utilizes finasteride (the generic form of Propecia) as its primary prescription offering, the effects of which have been clinically studied for years.16 Again and again, oral finasteride has been shown to be effective, especially at treating receding hairlines. Hims offers it in both topical and oral forms, the former of which may be preferable to men concerned with potential sexual and depressive side effects from the oral route. Topical finasteride, by comparison, yields few to no meaningful adverse reactions in clinical studies.17

Hims also offers minoxidil (the generic form of Rogaine) in two topical applications: a solution and a foam. The solution is less expensive, but it also contains a known irritant in propylene glycol, an ingredient that’s absent from the foam. When men or women trying minoxidil solution experience a reaction akin to contact dermatitis, they often reach for the foam and have a better experience.

Hims’ sister site, Hers, offers oral minoxidil, which is prescribed off-label for hair loss but shows great promise as an alternative to finasteride. Hims does not stock this as of yet.

Many men will take oral finasteride alongside topical minoxidil, as a combined approach tends to yield the most impressive results.18

Hims has two big competitors in the hair loss space: Keeps and Roman. Keeps offers decidedly similar products, sometimes for a little less money. We often steer men looking for topical minoxidil toward Keeps, while Roman is a superior pick for oral finasteride and used to be the only purveyor of the three to offer oral minoxidil. But Hims’ recent addition of hair loss chews includes an oral minoxidil option.

Hims has the best price for topical finasteride of the three; Roman doesn’t carry it, and Keeps’ offer — while less expensive up-front — is more expensive by the end of the first year. And these are forever treatments, not cures. You have to keep using them for them to keep working.

Here’s how the cost of one year’s worth of treatments compares from Hims, Roman, and Keeps:

Hims additional hair loss products

On top of various forms of finasteride and minoxidil, Hims offers a handful of products designed to support you on your hair loss journey. These include shampoos and conditioners, supplements, and bundles.

Our testers spent some time with the non-prescription kit and found its contents to be effective and easy to use. They reported that the Thick Fix shampoo had an invigorating aroma reminiscent of tea tree oil. It lathers nicely, but the lather fades as you massage it into the scalp. While this may dismay some users at first, it’s a good signal to know when you can stop massaging and let the shampoo sit before rinsing.

Our testers really appreciated the Thick Fix conditioner, as well. It had next to no aroma save the vaguest hint of lavender. It left our testers’ hair feeling exceptionally smooth and manageable, and one tester reported that its niacinamide helped with his dandruff.

The biotin gummies were tasty, but it was difficult to judge their effectiveness over a short consumption period.

Learn more about hair loss treatments at our complete guide dedicated to the subject.

Hims has a skincare line that includes customized prescription anti-aging and acne creams, in addition to non-prescription offerings like a Vitamin C serum, a wrinkle cream, and an everyday moisturizer.

The acne cream will consist of 1-5 active ingredients, based on your consultation with a Hims dermatologist. Those ingredients include:

• Tretinoin: has been shown to treat liver spots and minimize photo damage22
• Clindamycin: has been shown to fight acne effectively23
• Azelaic acid: another acne fighter, according to research24
• Zinc pyrithione: a common anti-dandruff ingredient that may also balance your skin’s microbiome25
• Niacinamide: a B vitamin long used in cosmetics to reduce signs of aging26

The anti-aging cream only consists of up to three of those ingredients, namely tretinoin, niacinamide, and azelaic acid.

These ingredients appear to have excellent track records for efficacy, but they aren’t without their risks. Some may cause allergic contact dermatitis in sensitive individuals. Burning and dryness are also possible, albeit uncommon reactions. For the anti-aging cream specifically, Hims warns of the following side effects:

• Itching
• Redness
• Scaling
• Dryness
• Peeling
• Burning
• Stinging
• Increased sun sensitivity

Ultimately, this is a shorter list of ingredients than Roman offers for an identical price. The big difference is in the availability of non-prescription products. With Roman, you have to subscribe to a prescription routine to access its other skincare products. But anyone can get the moisturizer or face wash from Hims, regardless of subscription status.

Here’s a quick look at the pricing for Hims’ skincare lineup:

• Hims' Acne Cream (starts at $29): This price will likely go up depending on the formulation you receive.
• Anti-Aging Cream (starts at $29): As with the anti-aging cream, this product’s price fluctuates depending on its constitution.
• Vitamin C Serum ($33): Works as a topical antioxidant with vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, and orange peel extract.
• Goodnight Wrinkle Cream ($24): Contains caffeine, which may help improve circulation in the skin and boost healing.30
• Everyday Moisturizer ($18): Includes hyaluronic acid, shea butter, and panthenol.
• High Tide Cleanser ($15): Central players in this face wash include hyaluronic acid, squalane, and green tea extract.

Hims also used to offer a concealer stick to hide blemishes and a small batch cologne, but the company has since discontinued those products.

Mental health services at Hims can be significantly less expensive than paying out of pocket, though sessions through your insurance network would likely be less expensive. For those without insurance or without sufficient coverage, Hims can be a vital help, offering medication services to treat anxiety, depression, burnout, and sleep issues. The company used to have individual and group counseling, as well, but those services have been removed from the platform.

Psychiatric care (including prescriptions)

At Hims, telemedicine now includes telepsychiatry. You can schedule virtual sessions with a psychiatric professional who can prescribe appropriate treatments. Such treatments might include:

• Bupropion (generic Wellbutrin)
• Citalopram (generic Celexa)
• Fluoxetine (generic Prozac)
• Sertraline (generic Zoloft)
• Duloxetine (generic Cymbalta)
• Escitalopram (generic Lexapro)
• Venlafaxine (generic Effexor)
• Buspirone (generic Buspar)

Paroxetine (generic Paxil) is also available from Hims through its premature ejaculation treatment path, but you won’t find the drug listed as a treatment among Hims’ antidepressants. If you’re curious about paroxetine, you might want to ask your Hims psychiatrist about its availability.

Here’s how Hims’ psychiatry works:

1. Answer some questions up-front. You’d typically answer these questions in an office setting when you first seek treatment. You’ll share information about your medical history and your current symptoms.
2. Choose a time slot to have a video meeting with a psychiatric professional. Depending on your state, this could be a psychiatrist or a different psychiatry provider, such as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
3. In your video session, your psychiatric provider will determine a potential course of treatment. If this is a prescription treatment, the provider will prescribe it to you.
4. Your prescription arrives at your door. Packaging will be entirely nondescript to protect your privacy appropriately.
5. Check in with your provider as your treatment progresses. Hims’ providers will work with you as your treatment continues, answering questions and monitoring progress and efficacy.

Hims' initial psychiatry session is an attractive deal for an online psychiatric service. In addition to covering the cost of medications, your monthly psychiatry subscription includes regular check-ins to ensure the course of treatment is working and to address any questions that might arise. Pricing starts at $49/month, but that may increase depending on your medication needs.

Keep in mind that there are sacrifices for that added convenience and savings. At this time, you don’t have a say in which psychiatric professional Hims assigns to you. You also can’t get controlled substances through a Hims psychiatrist, even if you’ve been prescribed them in the past.

We’ve covered several online psychiatry services as part of our comprehensive coverage of the telemedical landscape, and we’ve found other providers to be as good, if not better, choices than Hims. Hims’ prices are low compared to other online psychiatry platforms, but Hims’ inability to incorporate insurance puts it at a distinct disadvantage compared to companies like Talkspace.

Numerous companies are cropping up around the internet offering access to GLP-1 receptor agonists (like Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Ozempic). Even Hims’ closest competitor in many arenas, Roman, has a weight loss program offering both brand-name and custom-compounded generic GLP-1 medications.

Hims has a weight loss program of its own, but it doesn’t offer access to these medications. Instead, it relies on a handful of older oral medications that can suppress appetite or help control blood sugar.

These medications include:

• Bupropion: a commonly prescribed dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor that’s been shown to induce weight loss in some users.32
• Metformin: Like GLP-1 medications, metformin is an anti-diabetic drug with weight loss benefits.33
• Topiramate: This is typically a migraine drug, but its potential for weight loss has also been recently established.34
• Naltrexone: Since it’s mainly used for those with substance use disorders to help curb drug cravings, it can be a tool for people with overeating problems who want to consume less.35

Given the efficacy and popularity of GLP-1 medications, it wouldn’t surprise us if Hims’ program evolved to include them. For now, the medications it does offer have a good track record, but if you’re determined to go with what’s currently more en vogue, you might want to look elsewhere.

Hims used to offer a comprehensive platform for primary care, but the company has since curtailed that service,

Men looking to strengthen their immune systems, prevent chronic illness, and fight off the fatigue that naturally comes with age can make good use of Hims’ wellness products.

• Collagen protein powder (discontinued): aids in muscle recovery while also helping the skin retain its youthful elasticity.27
• Sleep gummies ($19): provide a healthy dose of the hormone melatonin, which helps most people get off to dreamland in short order.
• Biotin gummies ($16): may help grow thicker hair and stronger nails while promoting healthier, more youthful skin. These are also available in Hims hair loss bundles.
• Mind Unwind Drops ($25): These drops are designed to fight stress and include ingredients like ashwagandha, which has been shown to reduce dress and anxiety, and chamomile, the calming effects of which are so well established that it’s used in numerous nighttime herbal teas.28

Hims also used to offer an immunity gummy, but that appears to have been discontinued. That said, competitors like Roman don’t have the same lineup of supplements. Roman offers support for testosterone, cellular health, focus, and prostate health, however. Depending on your needs, you might be better off there or combining the two companies’ approaches.

For our quick video review of the Hims online doctor visit, watch here:

Profile and questionnaire

Whichever product or service you seek, your Hims experience will almost always begin with a simple questionnaire that establishes a baseline for your visit and provides a little related medical history. You'll use that information to create a profile account at the end of this process and before any direct consultation begins. During the initial medical questionnaire, you may need to provide a photo of your ID, a recent selfie for identity verification, and a credit card to order prescriptions or products. For erectile dysfunction medication, you must provide a blood pressure measurement from within the last six months. You can readily obtain this from a doctor, a local pharmacy, an at-home testing kit, or a pharmaceutical care program.

In some cases, you’ll be asked to select a medication when multiple options are available, as with ED and hair loss. This is not a binding selection, so don’t worry if you don’t know for sure which direction you want to follow in your treatment plan. You and your doctor will refine this selection as the process continues.

Getting matched with a doctor for consultation

After completing your online medical questionnaire, you chat with a qualified physician about potential treatments for your particular needs. We found it convenient and fast; we were matched with a physician in as little as one minute after our consultation. After the doctor diagnoses your medical issue and you agree to a treatment plan, your prescription (and other products) can ship directly to your door.

This process is decidedly similar to what you’ll experience on a platform like Roman, both in the initial questionnaire, doctor matching, and messaging systems.

Non-prescription shipments can take about a week to get to your home, and most products arrive in thinly padded shipping envelopes. Fortunately, containers for things like shampoo and conditioner are thick and sturdy, and many products come in their own boxes, as well. Don’t worry if one of those boxes gets a little beat up on its journey; the contents inside should be fine. We often found boxes for delay spray and similar items to be a little crushed in shipping, but we never found any damage to the products.

Certain prescription medications available through Hims — like its anti-aging cream — should ship right to your door without issue. When your doctor prescribes something that isn’t technically a Hims product, like an antibiotic, during a primary care session, you typically go through your local pharmacy for pickup or delivery. But Hims established its own pharmaceutical distribution center in Ohio to cover the middle of the country, and it partnered with Curexa in New Jersey and Truepill in California to cover either coast. If you live within the delivery radius of either of these pharmacies, you can choose direct shipping for pretty much anything that comes your way through Hims.

There are some caveats, as some shipping distances may be too far for any of the companies to reach. There are also some states where such medical shipments require specific licenses to control the cost of medicine within a state’s borders. Hims may not have those licenses. If you don’t see a direct shipping option for your prescription and would like to know why, the Hims hotline is there to help.

Privacy considerations

Hims takes data privacy very seriously. Personal medical data is encrypted and never shared according to company policies and in alignment with HIPAA regulations. All data is 256 bit SSL/TLS encrypted in motion and at rest and fulfills SOC2 security requirements. These are standard measures taken by most telehealth companies.

That said, the Hims website and similar providers like Roman and Keeps use cookies and trackers for both user experience and marketing purposes. Opting out of these cookies and trackers isn’t as simple as setting some preferences, either. You actually have to call or send an email explicitly asking to opt out, and Hims warns that doing so will significantly degrade the site’s performance on your account.

Men should know that a majority of Hims products arrive as a subscription service. For example, candidates for erectile dysfunction prescriptions will buy a recurring subscription to the medication based on their doctor’s recommended dosage.

Subscription plans can run monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly, or yearly, depending on the product in question. For example, certain skincare products contain fresh ingredients that would spoil if kept for more than a few months, limiting their potential subscription length.

Many Hims medications come in a range of potencies, as well. Sildenafil (the generic form of Viagra) can ship in doses from 20mg-100mg and in quantities from 4-16 doses per month. You and your doctor will decide which regimen is proper for you.

For pricing, things can get confusing quickly, especially in the sexual health department. Your doctor can prescribe each potential treatment for things like ED or PE in a slew of dosages and delivery options like those in the sildenafil example. On top of that, each combination of dosage and billing cycle has its own price, with savings available when you set up billing in longer cycles (i.e., quarterly instead of monthly).

Pricing can also change depending on the purpose of the prescription. You may notice that paroxetine and sertraline are available on both the mental health and sexual health pages. These selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) primarily target depression, but they have an off-label use as treatments for premature ejaculation. If your psychiatrist prescribes you either, the cost may change depending on dosage under Hims psychiatric subscription plan. But as PE medications, they bill quarterly at $207 every 90 days, which may end up being more or less expensive.

The bottom line is that you should talk to your consulting physician about the various dose and billing options for the medications they prescribe.

Important prices

We don’t think Hims means to obscure its prices for any nefarious reasons. The system has simply grown too complicated for its own good as the company continues to expand. Having a quick conversation with your doctor or a Hims representative is likely less complicated than combing through price lists and trying to determine the savviest course of action.

Still, there are some essential price points and details we want to highlight:

With the exceptions of prescriptions written through the primary care system, insurance will not cover most of Hims’ products and prescriptions. Without getting mind-numbingly deep into the requirements of the American insurance industry, we can simply say that Hims does not provide insurance companies with the specific forms and itemized receipts they demand. Part of this is the result of Hims’ unique structures, like its psychiatric subscription plan.

HSAs and FSAs have it even worse. Hims states on its website that most HSA and FSA card issuers reject claims made through Hims. This explanation is technically accurate, but the reality is that Hims forces their hand in rejecting claims. A Hims representative told us that it would place an undue burden on Hims-affiliated physicians to have them fill out and submit the necessary paperwork to satisfy such accounts.

Whether this was at the doctors’ request or a choice made by Hims executives is unclear. The result is the same, however. It’s best to go into any Hims session assuming you will not get any help from an insurance provider, HSA, or FSA.

A few other players in the men’s telehealth space offer similar products and services to those found on Hims. Most have a more limited purview than Hims, which can be both a strength and a weakness.