Sexual enhancement products don't live up to claims

US-based provider of supplement assessments ConsumerLab.com said today that nearly 60 per cent of sexual enhancement products marketed in the US failed to pass its independent product review.

Sexual dysfunction is estimated to affect 43 per cent of women and 31per cent of men in the US, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association​ in 1999. However, no prescription medication is available for sexual dysfunction for women and Viagra, an effective drug for erectile dysfunction in men, is expensive and has potential side-effects, noted ConsumerLab.

ConsumerLab.com's review assessed the clinical evidence for more than twenty ingredients used in some of the variety of non-prescription, sexual enhancement supplements marketed in the US, and evaluated 22 products containing the popular ingredients L-arginine, yohimbe, and epimedium (horny goat weed).

Eleven of the products evaluated failed to meet FDA labelling requirements. One product, for example, did not list the plant parts used, while another product indicated that it was made from yohimbe "root" rather than the appropriate part - the bark.

The remaining eleven products underwent further laboratory analyses. Among these, one product contained only 1per cent of its claimed amount of yohimbe. Another product was found to contain only 45 per cent of the expected marker compound for key ingredient epimedium.

Only nine of the 22 sexual enhancement products purchased passed the review. Commenting on the disturbing results, Dr Tod Cooperman ConsumerLab.com president said: "Viagra's success has spawned a plethora of alternative therapies marketed for sexual dysfunction. People interested in using these products, however, need to view them critically - as the effectiveness of most ingredients has not been well proven and many products are poorly made."​

For more information on the review, see ConsumerLab.com​.