Hims ED Review: Are Hims' ED products and services right for you?

No man wants to suffer from erectile dysfunction, but ED affects about 1/3 of men worldwide.1 The good news is that safe and effective treatments have emerged over the past couple of decades to help men reliably achieve and maintain erections.

As a comprehensive online men’s health platform, Hims rose to prominence with their erectile dysfunction and hair loss treatments. Their telemedical processes are speedy and straightforward, taking much of the awkwardness out of seeking ED medications in person. Hims ED customers regularly receive shipments of their pills and other products in secure, discreet packaging. But Hims isn’t the only option of this nature. Find out if they’re the right choice for you.

Hims’ ED offerings include effective treatments in generic and brand-name forms. They’re the only major telehealth provider currently prescribing the generic Viagra made by Pfizer — the company that makes original, branded Viagra. Men can also use Hims to find treatments for hair loss and premature ejaculation, which is quite convenient. Pricing is competitive, but navigating costs and billing options can be confusing (if you can find accurate price lists in the first place).

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service we review whenever possible, including telemedical services like Hims. All told, our team has collectively spent over 860 hours researching erectile dysfunction, its various treatments, and the companies offering them online.

To better understand what it’s like to use Hims, members of our team met with Hims doctors and went through the entire intake process, from sign-up to medication shipment and delivery. Beyond ED services, we’ve also tested Hims’ hair loss treatments, hair care and skincare products, PE treatments, primary care services (discontinued), and some mental health care. Our team read through over 190 clinical studies related to erectile dysfunction and ED treatments. We did not consume the prescription ED medications from Hims, but decades of research and market viability demonstrate a high level of efficacy for the treatments Hims offers. To round out our research, we interviewed men who do rely on Hims’ ED products and others whose partners require these treatments.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy and will continue to be monitored for updates by our editorial team.

We evaluated Hims ED based on the quality and cost of available treatments and the convenience and privacy of the consultation process. Our testing team experienced as much of the Hims ED process as possible, going through the entire sign-up and intake process, as well as receiving medications sent to several different addresses.

Ultimately, we found Hims to be one of the best places to look online for ED medication. This is even truer for men who are already using Hims to treat hair loss or premature ejaculation or who need to start such treatment.

Let’s take a closer look at the most important factors in our Hims evaluation:

Treatment options

In their catalog of options, Hims offers the two most popular treatments for ED on the market: Viagra and Cialis. They also have generic versions of both and an authorized generic Viagra (made by the original manufacturer or an approved partner). That not only helps men without insurance to afford the drugs, but it also increases the odds that insurance companies will pick up the tab for men who have coverage. Some insurers will only cover the costs of generics, while others prefer brand-name medications (and Hims doesn’t work with insurers of any kind directly; you’d have to apply for a reimbursement).

Hims also carries Stendra, which has a similar side effect profile to Viagra but has less of an effect on blood pressure, which can be a crucial consideration for some men.2 Unfortunately for some insured patients and anyone uninsured, Hims does not offer Stendra’s generic equivalent, avanafil.

Hims also recently began offering chewable versions of some of their medications, as companies like BlueChew have revealed a real demand for the convenience of chewable ED meds. Hims currently offers chewable forms of tadalafil, vardenafil, and a combination of tadalafil and sildenafil or vardenafil. They don’t offer chewable sildenafil on its own, but vardenafil is almost identical to sildenafil, just generally without the vision side effect that a small percentage of men experience with sildenafil.3

Here’s a quick look at which specific ED medications the top companies carry:

Hims’ combination treatments have expanded to include drugs outside of the ED realm, as well. One such option combines tadalafil and finasteride, using a popular ED medication to stave off potential sexual side effects associated with a well-known hair loss treatment. Another combines tadalafil with fluoxetine (generic for Prozac), a prescription SSRI that’s been shown to work for PE.25 No other company currently offers a comparable combination therapy.

Men looking for a more holistic approach to treating their ED will want to look elsewhere. While Hims does offer non-prescription and supplemental treatments for hair loss and skin care, all of their approaches to treating ED are prescription drugs. However, most non-prescription supplements targeted at ED can only boast studies that rely on much larger doses than the supplement manufacturers typically provide. It’s also not unusual for a telehealth company offering ED meds not to stock any supplemental alternatives, so we don’t count it against Hims.

Safety

From a safety perspective, there isn’t much to dislike about Hims’ ED offerings. They deal in the most well-researched prescription ED medications on the market, and they network with pharmacies around the U.S. to ensure the distribution of legitimate products. Their rating is bolstered further compared to some of their competition, including purveyors of supplemental ED treatments and other prescription alternatives.

For example, Rugiet is a company that offers a sublingual lozenge drug combining sildenafil, tadalafil, and a third drug called apomorphine. There is some evidence to suggest that combining therapies can increase efficacy without much extra risk, and Hims certainly offers combinations of its own. But Rugiet does so with exceptionally high doses that can increase risk factors more than many men would like. And the addition of apomorphine — which works differently than PDE-5 inhibitors — further complicates the side effects picture.

Thanks to the relative simplicity of Hims ED offerings and their reliance on medications and approaches with good safety profiles and plenty of scientific research behind them, the company earns outstanding ratings for safety.

Cost

Compared to buying these meds on the open market without help from an insurance company, Hims’ ED treatment pricing is very favorable. Their best deals come in generic medications, which are affordable for most men, even without insurance that might cover them.

Here’s a quick comparison of Hims against their two most prominent competitors, Roman and BlueChew. We’ll compare the lowest possible prices of Hims sildenafil and tadalafil to the options others offer at a similar dose, so you can see the potential savings:

That low price on 5mg tadalafil tablets is only available if you get a prescription intended for daily use and opt for annual billing and shipping. Chewable tadalafil is priced the same, but you can't get more than a 150-day supply, limiting the discount to $1.30/dose.

The 5mg pills for daily use are identical to the 5mg pills for as-needed use, and this is where Hims’ own phone support representatives taught us how to get the most bang for our buck. We suggest you do the same.

The only thing that could stop you from acquiring a 5mg tadalafil prescription for daily use and only taking it as needed is if that dose were too low for your ED. And Hims lets you start and stop your subscription so you don’t unintentionally stockpile medication, after which you can restart it whenever you’re close to running out. And you can use this method even if you need a 10mg dose to achieve an erection. You’d just take two 5mg pills and get 15 doses out of every monthly shipment. Compared to the 10mg pills you can get for as-needed use in quantities up to 16 per month, you still save more than $1 per dose. None of our other top-rated telehealth ED services can compete with those prices.

The doctor consultation necessary to acquire a prescription is free, as is any messaging if you need to ask questions about your medications or explore dosage and frequency adjustments. Shipping is also technically free with Hims, but the company charges $5 for every shipment as a “processing fee.” Opting for more spread-out shipments with quarterly, semiannual, or annual billing can reduce the frequency of these processing fees.

Privacy

Given the sensitive nature of men’s sexual health, good privacy protections are paramount. And there’s a distinction to be made here between protections for your medical information and those covering your online activity in general. On the medical side, Hims operates like any reputable prescription provider, so all of your medical data is protected to the standards set by HIPAA. Those standards strictly limit how your data can be transmitted, stored, and distributed, so you shouldn’t have to worry about your medical information on a Hims database any more than you would worry about your data on a hospital database.

On the online activity side, things are a little murkier, but the potential information involved here is much harder to pin to you personally. It has more to do with the activity of your device and IP address as tracked by cookies, web beacons, and other tools. Hims behaves like most other retail websites in this regard, utilizing your browsing behaviors to improve your experience and target ads in your direction.

Consultation experience

The initial questionnaire used to create your account and establish a baseline for your needs is easy to answer, even if some of the questions are sensitive. Erectile dysfunction is generally a sensitive topic, and not having to look someone in the eye or even talk to someone over the phone while describing your problems is definitely a bonus that comes with using Hims. After your questionnaire, any and all communications with your consulting physician occur through the Hims messaging platform, with most questions receiving answers within 24 hours. Some states’ telemedicine laws require an initial phone call or video chat, and Hims organizes these on their platform as well.

There is one frustrating thing about the order of operations in the consultation, though. Hims has you review medication options and make a selection before you message with a doctor. You can only switch medicines, dosages, or delivery schedules after you make that initial selection. Many men are liable to have questions they’d rather ask beforehand, and this feels a bit like an unnecessary step backward in the process before you reach the finish line. This is a relatively common practice among telehealth companies, though.

Convenience

Overall, the Hims platform is well-designed and simple to navigate. Any investigation of their sexual health products will quickly lead to the page where you can begin a simple questionnaire and a doctor consultation. For many men, that direct approach will be welcome, but if you want to do a deeper dive into a particular medication, it can be frustrating to keep landing on the consultation page instead of the pages where more information exists. Once you’ve made your selection and placed an order for one or more medications or products, Hims shipping is reliably fast.

One aspect that can be frustrating to deal with is Hims’ pricing structures. The site does a poor job of laying out the exact costs for each available dosage and billing frequency. Your doctor and Hims support staff help you make sense of it all, but it would be a lot more efficient if patients could review that information without working for it. And if you find yourself digging into the company’s blog for pricing information by clicking on posts like “Tadalafil Cost: What is the Price of Tadalafil?” you’ll get a combination of vague and often outdated pricing information.

If you end up subscribing to any Hims product and then cancel for any reason, you’ll have to deal with a very obnoxious feature. When using the website while logged into your account, every page you visit will suffer from a pop-up encouraging you to address so-called “Action Items,” which are just attempts to get you to restart suspended subscriptions. If you’re looking around the site hoping to gain information about various products, you’ll quickly get tired of this pop-up.

Hims is a telemedicine company devoted to men’s health, with offerings that go beyond just ED treatment. Their site includes everything from hair loss treatments and sexual health products to custom skin care regimens. Hims continues to evolve, growing their practice in recent years to include herpes treatments and several supplements, with a mental health services side that seems to expand and contract a bit each year. (You can learn more about these other offerings by visiting our full Hims review.) The majority of their offerings are subscription-based, ensuring that your prescriptions are refilled and shipped regularly and that you have consistent access to healthcare professionals. A sister site — Hers — delivers comparable care for women and includes things like birth control and yeast infection treatment in place of ED and premature ejaculation products.

Hims works with doctors from several specialties, all of whom are board-certified and licensed to practice in enough states that they can service anyone in the U.S. Getting connected with a doctor involves filling out a short questionnaire and setting up a time to chat, most often through text on their messaging platform but sometimes via phone or video conference. Most prescriptions ship from one of Hims’ integrated pharmacies, but you can easily receive your medications from a local pharmacy if you live outside their range. This is a pretty standard practice among Hims’ top competitors, and it’s one of the main reasons that these medications ship so quickly.

Hims ED products and pricing

Hims offers various ED medications, including three brand-name prescriptions and generic versions of the most popular drugs to combat ED. Their current offering consists of the following:

• Viagra
• Generic Viagra
• Sildenafil (Viagra’s active ingredient)
• Cialis
• Tadalafil (Cialis’ active ingredient)
• Stendra
• Vardenafil (chewable only)

All of these ED treatments are phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitors. To be clear, PDE-5 isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it prevents you from having an erection that would never go away. But an abundance of PDE-5 can prevent an erection from happening in the first place.

When you’re aroused (physically, psychologically, or both), your body produces cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), which widens blood vessels and relaxes the smooth muscles in your penis, allowing it to fill with blood and become erect. PDE-5’s role is to degrade CGMP and keep its levels in check.4 After climax or the removal of arousing stimulants, your body stops producing all that cGMP, the PDE-5 breaks the last of it down, and your erection fades. By binding to PDE-5, these medications let cGMP build up and stay elevated, allowing for an erection to form and stay put until climax.

Despite the fact that each of these medications is a PDE-5 inhibitor, they aren’t all identical. Viagra, sildenafil, and Stendra are decidedly similar, but there are some important differences among them. And Cialis and tadalafil present the option of a completely different dosing schedule than the others.

Billing cycles, doses, and quantities

Hims ED medications are available on monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and, in some cases, annual billing cycles. We generally recommend against anything more than quarterly billing for ED medication, as many have shelf lives of just two years. A medication you take as needed — like Viagra, for example — might last you longer than that if you get too much at once. Daily tadalafil and Cialis are exceptions to this, as you will reliably consume them before they expire. We’ll break down what you stand to save by comparing monthly and quarterly billing for each drug below.

Another way to control costs is by carefully choosing your dose level and your monthly quantity. One frustrating thing about Hims’ pricing model is that you don’t always save more money by buying in larger quantities. The six-dose quantities of most sildenafil/Viagra options are all less expensive per dose than others, even the 16-dose orders.

Here’s a list of prices per quarter for sildenafil 60mg:

If you choose to pay monthly, the price per dose never gets better as your quantity increases. If you pay quarterly, that price per dose fluctuates up and down without a clear logic to it. It’s still better than not being able to choose quarterly billing — which several Hims competitors do not offer — but more clarity in the system would be nice.

Hims offers a handful of ED medications, every one of which has been FDA-approved for use against ED and has been subjected to a significant amount of clinical research leading up to and after their approvals. However, some custom formulations, like the company’s chewable tablets and combination therapies, aren’t FDA-approved themselves, even though their individual components are FDA-approved and the compounding pharmacies that make them are FDA-regulated.

These medications’ potential side effects and contraindications are well-known. Those treatments include:

• Sildenafil (as branded Viagra, generic Viagra, and generic sildenafil citrate)
• Tadalafil (as branded Cialis and generic tadalafil)
• Avanafil (as branded Stendra)
• Vardenafil (generic chewable only)

Each of these is a PDE-5 inhibitor, which — as part of its ability to improve erectile performance — widens blood vessels. That can lower the blood pressure of anyone taking them, presenting a significant danger to any man taking medication to control blood pressure or suffering from an ailment that lowers it.6 You’ll need to submit a recent blood pressure reading to be given a prescription for any PDE-5 inhibitor, and you and your consulting physician will go over your current health state and discuss any current or previous cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary issues.

Beyond the dangers posed to individuals with blood pressure concerns, there are some common side effects associated with PDE-5 use.7 They include:

• Headache
• Flushing in the face
• Nasal congestion
• Nausea or indigestion
• Muscle pain
• Dizziness

Some of these side effects are caused by the PDE-5 inhibitors working to inhibit the activity of other PDE isoenzymes like PDEs 1, 6, or 11. One uncommon but possible side effect of PDE-6 inhibition is an inability of your vision to distinguish between shades of blue and green. For men who suffer from these collateral PDE inhibition side effects, we’d recommend trying a more targeted inhibitor than sildenafil or tadalafil, like Hims Stendra or chewable vardenafil.8

Let’s take a closer look at each medication Hims offers to get a better sense of which might be right for you.

Sildenafil is the most popular and the most affordable option for ED treatment. Developed in the mid-1990s as a treatment for hypertension and angina pectoris, sildenafil is the oldest PDE-5 inhibitor prescribed as an ED treatment. Sildenafil has been the subject of rigorous clinical studies throughout its lifespan, and those studies (as well as millions of patients) confirm its effectiveness.9 The original formulation of sildenafil citrate that was patented and marketed as an ED treatment went by the name Viagra — the now-famous “little blue pill.”

Hims offers sildenafil in three forms:

• Sildenafil citrate (generic)
• Generic Viagra
• Branded Viagra

Branded Viagra is the original, and it’s the most expensive form of the drug. Few men will opt for it through Hims due to its high cost, but there are two types of men for whom branded Viagra makes sense.

Understanding the difference between the other two sildenafil-based options available through Hims is a little more complicated. Generic Viagra and generic sildenafil may seem like the same thing, but there are subtle, important differences between the two. Generic Viagra is an “authorized generic,” which means it’s made either by the original company (Pfizer, in this case) or by a third party explicitly licensed by Pfizer to produce it. Generic Viagra is identical to the original in every way, but it won’t say Viagra on the prescription bottle — it will likely say sildenafil.

Generic sildenafil citrate, on the other hand, is not produced by Pfizer or an authorized partner. Instead, it’s produced by a third party that has essentially reverse-engineered the original formula and replicated its manufacturing process. FDA regulations demand that these generics be therapeutically identical to the original, but they can come in different doses and include different inactive ingredients like colorants. That’s why generic sildenafil can look very different from the classic “little blue pills.”

No matter whether you opt for branded or generic versions of the drug, the effects are the same. It typically takes between 30 and 60 minutes for sildenafil to take effect, at which point any source of arousal should create an erection of sufficient strength for successful sex. Heavy or fatty meals can slow down the time to efficacy, but the drug generally lasts for about 4-6 hours.

Hims offers branded Viagra at a 50mg dose and generic Viagra in doses of 25mg, 50mg, and 100mg. Generic sildenafil is a little different, as Hims utilizes a formulation that’s therapeutically identical to Viagra but that’s from a dosing schedule originally prescribed for pulmonary arterial hypertension. That allows them to distribute it in 20mg tablets for doses of 20mg, 40mg, 60mg, 80mg, and 100mg.

Each medication is available in quantities of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, or 16 pills per month. That makes Hims one of the best places to go if you aren’t sure how many pills per month you might need — their quantity options are among the most flexible on the market.

Here’s a look at the cost of different quantities and billing cycles for similar dose options:

Hims also includes sildenafil as part of a combination treatment in one of the company’s Sex Chews, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

The FDA approved tadalafil for medical use in the U.S. in 2003. It hit the market under the name Cialis. Like the other PDE-5 inhibitors, tadalafil doesn’t start working the moment you swallow the pill; it will take, on average, 30-60 minutes for the tadalafil to become effective.10 However, once it is effective, you can enjoy sex spontaneously without the degree of planning that other ED treatments require. Tadalafil remains active in the body for anywhere between 18 and 36 hours, depending on the dose and the individual.11 This convenience may be why some studies have found that men and their partners often prefer tadalafil to sildenafil.

Tadalafil provides patients with another modality in addition to as-needed use. Doctors can prescribe tadalafil as a daily medication.12 These prescriptions are often lower doses than those intended for as-needed use.

At first, it may seem unnecessary for anyone who doesn't have a fairly regular sex life to opt for a daily medication when they can take something else on an as-needed basis and get the same results. But there is an enormous opportunity here in the way that Hims structures their tadalafil pricing.

Tadalafil for as-needed use costs anywhere between $6.50 and $12.25 per use, depending on the dose. Tadalafil for daily use at either 2.5mg or 5mg costs $2.63 per use ordered monthly, $1.63 per use ordered quarterly, and as little as $1.07 per use with annual billing.

Here’s what the difference looks like mapped out with a monthly or quarterly plan:

As you can see, the cost per 5mg of tadalafil is far cheaper when you have a daily prescription, but because the medication is the same either way, you can request a 5mg daily prescription and only take it as needed. When we confirmed this with Hims representatives, they even reminded us that we could cancel and restart our subscription at any time with no fees. So to get the most out of your money, you can get 30 or 120 of the 5mg tadalafil tablets and immediately cancel your subscription. Then you can take them as needed and restart your subscription whenever you’re close to running out.

No other major provider can compete with this price structure for tadalafil.

If you need a dose higher than 10mg, you won’t be able to use that method to save additional money. Here’s what monthly and quarterly orders of 15mg or 20mg tadalafil would cost:

Pricing is similar for tadalafil Sex Chews, and you can also get tadalafil mixed with other ingredients in those chews for a combined effect that we’ll explore in our Sex Chews section below.

Hims also offers branded Cialis tablets at the 5mg level intended for daily use. You can only get the 30-pill prescription, which costs $1,045/month or $2,965/quarter. Clearly, generic tadalafil is the more economical option. Still, as was the case with Viagra, if you’re committed to sticking to the pill that’s worked for you in the past or your insurance will only work with branded Cialis, you might consider this route.

Stendra — the branded form of avanafil — is a PDE-5 inhibitor that’s more akin to sildenafil than it is to Cialis. It’s designed to be taken shortly before sex and has a duration of action roughly the same as sildenafil’s (4-6 hours). Some studies point toward a decreased time to action in Stendra, kicking in closer to the 15-30-minute range than sildenafil’s 30-60-minute average, regardless of dosage.13

Stendra is also a more recently developed drug than sildenafil, and you could consider it a more refined product. For example, sildenafil and tadalafil collaterally act on other phosphodiesterase isoenzymes in addition to PDE-5, including PDEs 1, 6, and 11. Each of those is associated with a different bodily process, and their inhibition can lead to anything from back pain to disturbances in vision. Stendra more selectively targets PDE-5, resulting in fewer of these side effects.14

That makes Stendra seem like an easy choice over its competitors, and Hims is the only one of our top-rated ED medication providers to offer it. However, since avanafil isn’t available yet as a generic, it can’t compete in price with other Hims ED treatments like sildenafil and tadalafil. Here’s a quick breakdown of Stendra costs through Hims. Note that Hims only offers Stendra in a 100mg dose:

These costs are nowhere near as difficult to swallow as those associated with branded Viagra or Cialis, but they’re still a lot higher than the generic versions of those drugs.

One of Hims’ chief competitors is BlueChew, who made their name by offering generic ED medications in a convenient chewable form. Hims has recently developed their own line of chewable ED medications they call Hard Mints. They’ve since expanded this offering to include more medications in different flavors, which are limited by the medication involved. Medications containing vardenafil are still mint-flavored, but other meds are fruity and referred to as Sex Chews.

There are some other important differences between the offerings from Hims and BlueChew, as well.

Let’s compare the two in a handy chart to see which medications each provider stocks:

As you can see, Hims doesn’t offer sildenafil on its own as a chewable, but they do offer daily tadalafil and a combination of sildenafil or vardenafil with tadalafil. There is some evidence that combining these drugs increases their efficacy, but there may also be a concurrent increase in side effects.24

The doses each company offers are different, as well:

While there is a little more dose flexibility coming from Hims, their daily pricing is the only way for you to get a better deal than you can with BlueChew for similar medications, as long as you aren’t sure that you need to combine two of them.

Of course, you can also order up to a five-month supply of tadalafil for daily use and take it as needed if the dose is high enough to work for you. Still, the opportunity for a free trial with BlueChew makes them a more advisable place for most men to start.

Other factors, like the specific dose that works best for you, will influence the medication you eventually use, but BlueChew is likely the best place to start for men new to chewable ED medications. You can always switch to Hims if you discover success with BlueChew but want to experiment with other doses or combination therapies.

Men with a little more experience taking PDE-5 inhibitors may be interested in combination therapies from Hims, which are only available as chews. These comprise tadalafil alongside either sildenafil or vardenafil, and prices are the same no matter the dose strength or combination:

In addition to combining ED medications, Hims apparently saw an opportunity combining daily tadalafil with other daily medications to support other aspects of men’s health. So far, they’ve created a trio of such medications under the Sex Rx banner:

• Hair Hero: a combination of tadalafil and finasteride and minoxidil or just minoxidil
• Climax Control: a combination of tadalafil and fluoxetine
• Heart Support: a combination of tadalafil and atorvastatin

Two of these combination therapies use medications that were already in Hims’ arsenal, but the addition of atorvastatin in the Heart Support pill is new. Let’s examine each offering in more detail.

Hims Sex Rx Hair Hero

The logic behind combining tadalafil with finasteride is sound. Finasteride has been shown to cause sexual side effects in a small percentage of users, with some of those side effects lasting up to several years after men have stopped taking it.26 These can include loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, fertility issues, and more. By including tadalafil alongside finasteride, you could theoretically cut some of these potential side effects off at the pass.

Combining tadalafil with minoxidil isn’t as clear of a home run, as oral minoxidil doesn’t have any known sexual side effects.28 However, the combination does add convenience to your regimen if you’re interested in treating both hair loss and ED in one fell swoop. And you can even combine tadalafil with both finasteride and minoxidil to further bolster your fight against hair loss.

Hair Hero comes as an 8.5mg dose of daily tadalafil alongside either 3mg of minoxidil or 1.2mg of finasteride and 3mg of minoxidil. Regardless of the way you combine these medications, the pricing is the same:

Hims Sex Rx Climax Control

In addition to offering topical numbing solutions as a premature ejaculation treatment, Hims has also provided men in need with prescription SSRI medications that have success in extending ejaculation latency (the time it takes you to climax). Sertraline is the go-to treatment from Hims, but they’ve chosen a different SSRI with tadalafil in formulating this combination treatment.

Instead of sertraline, Hims combines tadalafil with fluoxetine to treat ED and PE simultaneously. Fluoxetine is generic for Prozac, and its side effect profile is similar to sertraline, including agitation, anxiety, and insomnia. However, the intensity of those side effects appears more significant with fluoxetine, and patient satisfaction appears greater with sertraline.27 Why Hims chose fluoxetine for this treatment is unclear, but we hope they’ll consider a switch if it’s medically advisable.

For now, the fluoxetine portion is available in two doses: 22.4mg and 44.5mg. Unless you have extensive experience with fluoxetine, your consulting physician will likely start you at the 22.4mg dose. The tadalafil dose is 8.5mg, and it’s not flexible.

Climax Control is available in 30-, 90-, and 150-day supplies:

Hims Sex Rx Heart Support

While cardiovascular complications are a consideration for men taking PDE-5 inhibitors, it’s rare to see a company offer a combined ED medication and statin treatment like this. Specifically, this is a combination of tadalafil with one of two statin treatments — atorvastatin or rosuvastatin — that studies have illustrated to be among the most effective statins for preventing cardiovascular events both in healthy populations and among men who’ve already had cardiovascular incidents.29

Hims offers its Sex Rx Heart Support as either a daily or as-needed medication. You can combine either statin drug with tadalafil, vardenafil, or a combination of tadalafil and vardenafil. By comparison, Climax Control and Hair Hero are only available as daily medications with tadalafil (no vardenafil option).

However, the statin doses available are on the low side, offering 11mg of atorvastatin or 9mg of rosuvastatin when studies use doses of either approaching 80mg. (Lower doses as these have still been shown effective, they’re just less common.) You can get either statin with 11.2mg or 8.5mg of tadalafil or vardenafil, depending on your needs.

Pricing for the daily version is the same as you see with the Climax Control Sex Rx:

The as-needed version is available in seven quantities you can choose from based on your level of sexual activity, and you can still bill and ship these every 30, 90, or 150 days. Prices vary based on your chosen quantity.

Hims has a straightforward process for erectile dysfunction treatment that can take roughly 15-30 minutes to complete.

Here’s how the process of acquiring a prescription and receiving ED medication works through Hims:

1. Begin your online Hims ED visit

At the start of your visit, you’ll complete a simple questionnaire about your health, medical history, and lifestyle. Most of the questions are multiple-choice and easy enough to answer, but you may need a blood pressure reading from within the last six months before you can proceed.

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

2. Review prescription options and prices

After completing the questionnaire, you’ll review five possible prescription options with associated pricing. Don’t worry if you have questions about the drugs at this point; you can change your medication and adjust its dosage after you chat with your Hims physician.

3. Choose dosage and frequency

After indicating a treatment preference, you can request a specific dosage and quantity based on your level of sexual activity. Lastly, select a shipping frequency. Most plans offer monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly, or yearly options. We recommend either monthly or quarterly options to prevent unused medicine from expiring.

4. Verify your identity

Next, you’ll upload a photo of your ID and a recent selfie. This is an identity verification step that Hims requires to conduct medical and pharmacy care safely online.

5. Get matched with a Hims ED doctor

At this step in the process, a doctor reviews your case. In our testing, we received a response within a few minutes on their secure messaging system providing reading materials related to treatment options. Within about eight hours after that, we received a personalized message from a Hims doctor about our case. He recommended ED medication based on our questionnaire responses. At this stage, you can use Hims’ secure messaging system to ask your doctor any additional questions you may have. If your state requires it, this is also when you would have any necessary phone calls or video conferences.

6. Receive your treatment

Hims ships your medications directly to your door in discreet, secure packaging. If you happen to live outside the reach of a Hims pharmacy or pharmacy affiliate, a representative will help you set up delivery to a local pharmacy. Shipping is free from Hims, but your local pharmacy may charge a fee for home delivery.

These steps are similar to what you’d go through with any telehealth provider offering ED medications. Hims’ pharmacy network is large enough that shipments are reliably fast, though we’ve received meds from competitors like BlueChew in similar time frames.

Some insurance companies will cover generic ED medications but not brand-name pills; others do the opposite. Many don’t cover them at all. You won’t submit your insurance information to Hims, though. Instead, you’ll have to pay the cost of any medications up-front and submit a claim for reimbursement with your insurance provider. This can be a little tricky, however, as Hims does not provide itemized receipts.

HSA and FSA card issuers almost universally deny all claims through Hims. We recommend prospective patients check out their insurance plans carefully to ensure that they cover out-of-network services like Hims.

These insurance hurdles are pretty standard for ED meds in the telehealth industry. This is one area where going through your doctor in person has its benefits, but only if you can verify with your insurer that ED medications would be covered (and covered enough that your copay would be less than the out-of-pocket cost of generics through Hims). Add any copay for your doctor’s visit, and Hims’ generic costs seem even more desirable.

That’s why most patients prefer to pay out-of-pocket for inexpensive generic treatments like sildenafil to avoid insurance headaches.

Hims takes data privacy very seriously. They comply with HIPAA regulations mandating they encrypt all of your medical data and will never share it. All data is 256-bit SSL/TLS encrypted in motion and at rest and fulfills SOC2 security requirements.

That said, the Hims website uses 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. Some of Hims’ competitors make this process easier, namely Roman. But others, like Rugiet, bury the option in their terms of service.

We’ve reviewed the alternatives to Hims for men seeking prescription help with their erectile dysfunction. Some boast slight advantages over Hims, but as of right now, Hims is the only major provider we like that offers Stendra as an alternative to Viagra. For men looking to minimize their risk of adverse reactions, this makes Hims an attractive choice. You also might find yourself sticking with Hims for ED service out of convenience if you already have an account there to receive things like skincare products or hair loss treatments. That said, it is worth looking at what other companies have to offer.

BlueChew

BlueChew is one of Hims’ top competitors in the sexual health space. Hims’ selection has come to mirror BlueChews in several ways over the years, but it’s also caused Bluechew to adapt by offering a chewable daily tadalafil. That led BlueChew to release a daily tadalafil chew of their own. And as of now, Hims doesn’t offer a standalone sildenafil chew; you can only get sildenafil combined with tadalafil in chewable form from Hims.

Men who have never tried a PDE-5 inhibitor for ED may wonder whether any of these medications will work for them. BlueChew gives you one cost-saving advantage in this case by letting you try prescription sildenafil, tadalafil, or vardenafil for free. And if you’re committed to chewable ED medications and want sildenafil on its own, you’d have to go with BlueChew, as Hims doesn’t offer a standalone sildenafil chew at this time. (Visit our full BlueChew review to learn more about the free trial opportunity.)

Roman

Like Hims, Roman has a nice variety of health services on their website, including products that help with weight loss, skin health, and premature ejaculation. Their prices are comparable to Hims, but like BlueChew, they don’t offer Stendra at this time. They do have an easy-to-digest price list, however, which is something that Hims could use.

A previous knock on Roman was that they charged $15 for an initial consultation. They have since reconsidered their position and now offer a free consultation in line with their competitors.

Ultimately, Roman only makes sense as an ED medication provider if you already use one or more of their other services and prefer to keep everything under one roof. The fact that their services include a few more things than Hims (like testosterone support) makes them a viable choice for such a multi-prong approach.

There are multiple ways to treat erectile dysfunction. Prescription medications like the ones Hims offers are generally the most effective and come with a litany of clinical research behind them. So, their likelihood of working and their potential for side effects are well known. But some men would prefer to avoid taking prescription-strength medicine. These men have a few additional options, including:

• Non-prescription nutritional supplements
• Penis pumps
• Shockwave treatment
• Lifestyle changes

None of these alternatives can compete with prescription medications for reliability, and ingredients like sildenafil and tadalafil boast significantly more high-quality clinical research than many of the components you’ll find in supplements. Fortunately, so long as you clear it with your doctor, these approaches are not mutually exclusive. You can make positive lifestyle changes, add certain nutritional supplements, and utilize a penis pump, all while taking the prescriptions found through Hims.

Non-prescription nutritional supplements

There is some evidence that certain nutritional deficiencies can contribute to erectile dysfunction. There is also some clinical basis for the claim that certain vitamins, minerals, botanicals, or amino acids might improve ED symptoms by acting like PDE-5 inhibitors. A lot more research is needed before these claims hold enough water to deserve serious medical consideration. Still, many companies have seen fit to combine several of these ingredients into nutritional supplements commonly classed as male enhancement pills.

Potentially beneficial ingredients to look for in male enhancement supplements include:

Other companies shift their focus away from the kind of effects prescription PDE-5 inhibitors offer, instead looking to low testosterone as a potential cause of erectile dysfunction. These companies rely on some of the same ingredients found in male enhancement pills, but they build their formulas around ingredients that might increase testosterone levels. These supplements, known as testosterone boosters, are likely to only help men whose testosterone levels are significantly in decline or already clinically low.

Some ingredients found in our top testosterone boosters include:

We’ve spent a tremendous amount of time researching and reviewing these supplements, and we’ve weeded out many sketchy players and fly-by-night companies to find a few brands we think can potentially deliver genuine results for some men.

• Our top choice among male enhancement pills is Performer 8.
• Our top-rated testosterone booster is Innerbody Testosterone Support.

These will really only work in mild cases of ED; if your ED is moderate-to-severe, you will likely need prescription help. It’s also worth noting that the average male enhancement pill or testosterone booster is markedly more expensive than generic prescription options. Also, you have to take these supplements daily, as opposed to consuming them as needed.

Penis pumps

Penis pumps are understandably regarded with a bit of derision by many men. The pump industry has lost some credibility by profiting from a misconception that pumps can increase your penis size; several top manufacturers perpetuate this false claim. The reality of what a penis pump is designed to do is much different.

When you use a pump, the vacuum pressure it creates causes blood to collect in your penis. Depending on the cause of your ED, this can be enough to generate an erection of sufficient strength and duration for penetrative sex.21

The big benefit of using a penis pump for ED is that you don’t have to put any chemical substances into your body, prescription or otherwise. You also need to make just one investment in the pump itself and not worry about refilling prescriptions or reordering supplements. Its cost, however, is the first of a few sticking points.

Pumps can cost anywhere from $50-$500, and looking in the bargain bin for something designed to intimately interact with your penis isn’t the best idea. Our favorite pumps come from Bathmate, with their Hydromax7 and HydroXtreme11 costing $159 and $399, respectively. That’s a much bigger investment than the average generic ED pill. (You can learn more at our full guide to the best penis pumps.)

Penis pumps can also be cumbersome to use, with air pumps creating discomfort and water-based pumps requiring a bath or shower to use without making a mess. And if you’re new to the process, the time it’ll take you to set up the pump, get in the shower, pump successfully, and towel off isn’t much less than the time it would take the average ED medication to kick in.

We don’t discourage men from trying a pump if that seems like a viable path for them. There are certainly enough options out there that most men could find a suitable match. But given the convenience and efficacy of prescription ED medications, it’s hard to see why someone would reach for the pump instead.

Shockwave treatment

Despite a somewhat scary name, shockwave treatment is an uninvasive and relatively reliable ED treatment for men whose erectile dysfunction has a physiological origin. The process uses targeted acoustic soundwaves — not electrical stimulation like electroshock therapy — to stimulate blood flow and instigate healing in the corpus cavernosum and surrounding tissue.

Shockwave treatments are typically administered in a clinical setting by a licensed urologist, but increased interest in at-home treatments has fueled a rise in the availability of at-home shockwave devices. Unfortunately, many of these available on sites like Amazon are not recommendable, as they produce too weak a pulse or the wrong frequency to be effective.

In our research, we’ve so far identified only one at-home shockwave device worth trying, and that’s the Phoenix by Launch medical. You can learn more in our dedicated Phoenix review.

Lifestyle changes

Erectile dysfunction can arise from one of many potential causes or a combination of factors ranging from cardiovascular disease to mental health issues. Given the variety of possible contributing factors, it’s no surprise that there are multiple lifestyle adjustments you can make to help combat ED. Here are a few things that can’t hurt to try:

Regardless of your ED status, these are mostly all positive adjustments any man can make to improve their life and health. None of them should interfere with your ability to also use prescription interventions to help with your ED. Over time, you may find that these changes allow you to achieve an erection without medical help, but you can utilize prescriptions from Hims in the meantime.