How to Determine if a Sexual Enhancement Product Is Legitimate
See your doctor., Research clinical data., Ignore personal testimonials., Verify physician recommendations., Search for information related to the product on other credible sites., Study the active ingredients., Check the FDA to see if the product...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: See your doctor.
You can sidestep the possibility of illegitimate sexual-enhancement products altogether by starting with a visit to your doctor.
Most of these products do nothing at best and are potentially harmful to your health at worst.
Legitimate prescription medications exist for many issues related to sexual performance, including erectile dysfunction.
See your doctor to determine if any clinically proven medications backed by verifiable medical research are available for your issue.Make sure that you tell your doctor about any medications or supplements you are taking.
Some medications may interact negatively with each other. -
Step 2: Research clinical data.
Go to clinicaltrials.gov and search by product name.
This website—run by the U.S.
National Institutes of Health—contains the results of all official testing of medical products.Any product on the market should have the research data to prove its efficacy, and any manufacturer of a product should want to make this information publicly available to prove to consumers that it works.No published clinical trials mean that the product either proved ineffective in a trial and the data wasn’t published or the company simply hasn’t performed any trials—both of which mean the product’s claims are probably illegitimate.
Moreover, don’t automatically believe advertising for a product that mentions clinical trials.
Do your own research (such as with the NIH link above) to verify the trials.
Companies can easily run trials of their product that fall short under the scrutiny of actual scientific rigor, or they can simply claim to have run trials.
Again, if they actually ran an authentic trial that proved the efficacy of their product, they’d rush to publish it in reputable locations. , Claims from individuals about a product are easy to make up and don’t require being held up to scrutiny.
Never let testimonials for a drug or anecdotes about its effectiveness stand in place of hard scientific data in the form of published research and clinical trials.By ignoring this baseless support of a product, you’ll immediately notice that it’s just meant to fill the void of legitimate medical information. , Any company can purchase an online photo of an actor in a lab coat and claim the product is "doctor recommended.” Google the name of the physician and determine if the person is a real doctor with a specialization in the area of sexual medicine.
Is the physician associated with a prominent hospital? Has the physician completed research and published papers in medical journals? Additionally, if no name appears next to the alleged doctor, then this makes it even less likely that the person is a legitimate medical professional. , Clinical trials might not be the only information published about a product.
PubMed is another site run by the National Institutes of Health, and it includes over twenty-four million citations related to credible medical research, including information of medications, herbs, and other supposedly performance-enhancing chemicals., If the product is a pill, lotion, spray, or cream, do a search on the ingredients to determine if it is medically viable for the claimed use. PubMed is a reliable source for conducting this research.Many products may also claim to have discovered a group of well-known ingredients, combined in just the right ratio, to unlock the desired performance.
If this were true, the company would file for, and receive, a patent on the invention in order to obtain the maximum financial return. Search the U.S. government patent database for any such claims, filed by company and inventor name. , Many sexual-enhancement products illegally add quantities of prescription drug ingredients, unstudied ingredients, and even controlled substances in order to boost claims.These products are often categorized as “dietary supplements” since such supplements do not require approval by the Food and Drug Administration.The hidden ingredients of these products make them potentially dangerous or liable to negatively interact with other medications you may be taking.
You can find a complete list of the products known to contain hidden ingredients on the FDA website here.These are just the products that have been identified to contain such ingredients and likely represent only a small percentage of sexual-enhancement products that do contain them. , Pills aren’t the only potentially harmful sexual-enhancement products.
A number of pumps claiming to increase penis size are also on the market, for instance.
Even products like this that can appear to have temporary effects on appearance can do long-term damage by damaging the elastic tissue of the penis and ultimately leading to erectile issues later on., Legitimate self-help ideas spread quickly.
People love to help others and not make money from it.
And the internet is a great way to do that.
Be extra careful of those who claim a method, exercise, thought process or "trick" that can help improve your sexual performance
- but only if you buy their book, DVD or newsletter.
Don't you think that people who have had such great success with this idea would share it on a blog or website? -
Step 3: Ignore personal testimonials.
-
Step 4: Verify physician recommendations.
-
Step 5: Search for information related to the product on other credible sites.
-
Step 6: Study the active ingredients.
-
Step 7: Check the FDA to see if the product is harmful.
-
Step 8: Beware of other harmful side effects.
-
Step 9: Beware of people looking to make money.
Detailed Guide
You can sidestep the possibility of illegitimate sexual-enhancement products altogether by starting with a visit to your doctor.
Most of these products do nothing at best and are potentially harmful to your health at worst.
Legitimate prescription medications exist for many issues related to sexual performance, including erectile dysfunction.
See your doctor to determine if any clinically proven medications backed by verifiable medical research are available for your issue.Make sure that you tell your doctor about any medications or supplements you are taking.
Some medications may interact negatively with each other.
Go to clinicaltrials.gov and search by product name.
This website—run by the U.S.
National Institutes of Health—contains the results of all official testing of medical products.Any product on the market should have the research data to prove its efficacy, and any manufacturer of a product should want to make this information publicly available to prove to consumers that it works.No published clinical trials mean that the product either proved ineffective in a trial and the data wasn’t published or the company simply hasn’t performed any trials—both of which mean the product’s claims are probably illegitimate.
Moreover, don’t automatically believe advertising for a product that mentions clinical trials.
Do your own research (such as with the NIH link above) to verify the trials.
Companies can easily run trials of their product that fall short under the scrutiny of actual scientific rigor, or they can simply claim to have run trials.
Again, if they actually ran an authentic trial that proved the efficacy of their product, they’d rush to publish it in reputable locations. , Claims from individuals about a product are easy to make up and don’t require being held up to scrutiny.
Never let testimonials for a drug or anecdotes about its effectiveness stand in place of hard scientific data in the form of published research and clinical trials.By ignoring this baseless support of a product, you’ll immediately notice that it’s just meant to fill the void of legitimate medical information. , Any company can purchase an online photo of an actor in a lab coat and claim the product is "doctor recommended.” Google the name of the physician and determine if the person is a real doctor with a specialization in the area of sexual medicine.
Is the physician associated with a prominent hospital? Has the physician completed research and published papers in medical journals? Additionally, if no name appears next to the alleged doctor, then this makes it even less likely that the person is a legitimate medical professional. , Clinical trials might not be the only information published about a product.
PubMed is another site run by the National Institutes of Health, and it includes over twenty-four million citations related to credible medical research, including information of medications, herbs, and other supposedly performance-enhancing chemicals., If the product is a pill, lotion, spray, or cream, do a search on the ingredients to determine if it is medically viable for the claimed use. PubMed is a reliable source for conducting this research.Many products may also claim to have discovered a group of well-known ingredients, combined in just the right ratio, to unlock the desired performance.
If this were true, the company would file for, and receive, a patent on the invention in order to obtain the maximum financial return. Search the U.S. government patent database for any such claims, filed by company and inventor name. , Many sexual-enhancement products illegally add quantities of prescription drug ingredients, unstudied ingredients, and even controlled substances in order to boost claims.These products are often categorized as “dietary supplements” since such supplements do not require approval by the Food and Drug Administration.The hidden ingredients of these products make them potentially dangerous or liable to negatively interact with other medications you may be taking.
You can find a complete list of the products known to contain hidden ingredients on the FDA website here.These are just the products that have been identified to contain such ingredients and likely represent only a small percentage of sexual-enhancement products that do contain them. , Pills aren’t the only potentially harmful sexual-enhancement products.
A number of pumps claiming to increase penis size are also on the market, for instance.
Even products like this that can appear to have temporary effects on appearance can do long-term damage by damaging the elastic tissue of the penis and ultimately leading to erectile issues later on., Legitimate self-help ideas spread quickly.
People love to help others and not make money from it.
And the internet is a great way to do that.
Be extra careful of those who claim a method, exercise, thought process or "trick" that can help improve your sexual performance
- but only if you buy their book, DVD or newsletter.
Don't you think that people who have had such great success with this idea would share it on a blog or website?
About the Author
Isabella Chavez
Writer and educator with a focus on practical lifestyle knowledge.
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