hims Premature Ejaculation Products Review (Sertraline for PE)
You can read here our complete forhims.com review. Hims is both a telemedecine prescription service and a subscription service that sell products for premature ejaculation. Please note if you purchase a product at forhims.com directly after clicking a link in this article, we will receive a small commission for the sale. This revenue helps us pay for the site hosting and other expands. It let us continue our work and create free reliable content to support people who suffer from PE.
Our hims (forhims.com) Review Summary
Hims (forhims.com) is a telemedicine service that offers access to licensed medical providers for the prescription of sertraline, an ejaculation-delay drug. It also sells lidocaine delay sprays, although you don’t need a prescription to use a delay spray.
For me, the real interest of hims reside in its easy online prescription service. Although delay sprays are effective, since it’s available over-the-counter, you can find cheaper options than what hims offer.
However, when we’re talking about premature ejaculation medication, there’s a real need for a service like hims. hims offers free access to online consultations with a licensed medical providers for men who wish to treat their rapid ejaculation.
This consultation will let you know if you can use a drug to treat your PE, and it will allow you to receive sertraline tablets by mail. Sertraline is an anti-depressant drug that can be prescribed off-label for the treatment of premature ejaculation.
Although an in-person consultation with a doctor has more benefits, hims service is easy to use, and it can be a good way to try medication if you’re shy to consult in person. However, as we state in this review, we recommend eventually consulting a doctor in person. Still, hims can be a safe, easy and cheap place to start using medication for PE.
Please note that hims is only available in the USA. Even in the US, it’s not available in all states. If you want to know which state is covered by their service, click here and click the “Start my free visit” button. During the process, you will be asked to enter your state, and it will tell you if the service is available for you.
What is hims?
For Hims, Hims, Inc. or simply hims is a San Francisco based startup that operates the website www.forhims.com. It was founded in 2017 and its mission is to enable conversations that’s currently taboo about men’s health.
As stated on their website, only 10% of guys feel comfortable talking about their looks and sexual problems with their doctor. Yet if you want a prescription drug… you need a doctor’s prescription. And for that, you need to speak with a doctor or a licensed medical provider.
So, hims remotely connects men with doctors and other medical providers that are licensed to prescribe drugs. On their website and mobile app, you can start the process by filling out a medical questionnaire. Then a licensed medical provider will review the answers. If your health condition fits the criteria, you will receive the drug you ordered by mail.
What Types Of Products Does hims Sell?
Originally, hims was specialized in erectile dysfunction and hair loss. For hair loss, they sell prescription drugs, vitamins and shampoo. As for erectile dysfunction treatments, they offer ED prescription drugs such as sildenafil (generic Viagra) and tadalafil (generic Cialis).
In 2019, they started selling premature ejaculation products. They currently have two products for the treatment of PE.
The first one is a lidocaine delay spray. It’s a local anesthetic that you can apply directly to your penis to diminish your sensitivity. The second one is a prescription for sertraline tablets. Sertraline is a pill (from the SSRI family) that can delay ejaculation when taken daily or a couple of hours before sex. Sertraline is more efficient when taken daily, and it’s usually prescribed for daily usage instead of “on-demand.” Both product types (local anesthetic and SSRI) are recommended by the International Society of Sexual Medicine as a treatment for lifelong premature ejaculation.
Please note that this article only reviews hims’ PE products. You can also find product for ED (erectile dysfunction) and hair loss on forhims.com.
Hims Lidocaine PEJ Spray Review
We will start by the lidocaine spray. A lidocaine spray is a local anesthetic that can reduce the sensitivity of your penis.
PEJ Spray
When applied to the most sensitive region of your manhood, the local anesthetic will numb some of your nerves. By doing this, lidocaine in the spray blocks the signals your penis normally sends to the brain and the spinal cord. Therefore, you can receive more stimulation before you feel the need to ejaculate.
If you want more information on lidocaine mechanism of action, or on how to apply a lidocaine spray, you can consult the articles below.
Does hims Lidocaine Spray Works for PE?
Yes, hims Lidocaine spray works well.
In fact, it works like almost any other spray. Indeed, the usage of local anesthetics for premature ejaculation is regulated by the FDA.
The FDA accepts the usage of two different local anesthetics for the treatment of premature ejaculation: benzocaine and lidocaine.
Lidocaine is more effective than benzocaine. However, its usage is subject to restrictions. Every lidocaine spray needs to be sold inside a dose-metered bottle. This bottle must not deliver more than 10mg of lidocaine per spray. Therefore, there’s not a lot of difference between brands of lidocaine sprays.
The only exception to this rule is Promescent, which has a unique and patented mixture of lidocaine with its own benefits.
How Much Does hims Lidocaine Spray Cost?
Price: that’s where different brands of sprays can distinguish themselves. Unfortunately, hims’ spray is not the least expensive option available on the market..
The 5.2 ml bottle contains around 40 sprays, and the bottle is $29. It means that each spray costs around $0.73. When you use lidocaine, the number of sprays per usage depends on how long you want to last. However, you can’t apply more than 10 sprays per session. The recommended amount is between 3 and 10 sprays. So, for example, someone who will use 5 sprays will have to pay $3.63 each time he uses hims’ spray.
$3.63 is not expensive for a premature ejaculation treatment, but it’s not cheap either. The truth is, there are other brands of spray that will give you the same effect for a fraction of the price. For example, a usage (5 sprays) of Dynamo Delay costs around $0.28.
So, I don’t recommend using hims pej spray since there are cheaper alternatives that are as effective as it is. The only exception would be if you also want to use their sertraline treatment. On top of the savings you can do by ordering both products together, it can be more practical to buy all your PE products at the same place.
Hims Sertraline Tablet Review (on-demand SSRI)
For me, what makes hims interesting is its prescription service for sertraline. If you want to try medication for premature ejaculation, hims telemedicine is probably the easiest way.
50mg Sertraline Tablet
What is Sertraline?
Sertraline is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). It’s a kind of antidepressant. Among other uses, it’s a well-accepted treatment for anxiety and depressive disorders. It’s often known under the trade name Zoloft.
Does Sertraline Works for PE?
Patients who’ve used SSRI such as sertraline complained from a strange side-effect. They took longer to ejaculate. While it can be bothersome for some men, if you suffer from premature ejaculation, that’s actually helpful.
So, researchers began to investigate the effect of SSRI on ejaculation control and latency. It turns out that, yes, sertraline is effective against premature ejaculation. Researchers now have enough data to prove its efficacy in delaying ejaculation. That’s why doctors can now prescribe some SSRIs to treat premature ejaculation.
How Can I Get a Prescription for Sertraline with hims?
Normally, if you want to try a drug for premature ejaculation, you need an appointment with a doctor. During this appointment, your doctor will ask you some questions about your general health condition and your sexual history.
If the doctor considers that the drug can be helpful and your health condition is compatible, he will issue a prescription.
However, depending on your insurance plan, a visit to the doctor can be pricey. Also, a lot of men are shy to talk about sexual issues in-person with their physicians.
To remedy this situation, hims has developed a cost-effective method to get a prescription online. The process is simple: you create an account on forhims.com, you answer questions about your health, and then a physician (or any licensed medical provider) reviews your answers during an online consultation. Then, if you’re condition allows it, hims will ship you the drug for your PE. The online consultation is free, you’ll only need to pay for the drug.
How Long Should I Last with Sertraline?
It’s impossible to know how much longer a specific drug can make you last. Every person reacts differently to each drug. However, if we take a look at the different studies, we can look at the average.
One first study conducted in 19991 demonstrated really great results. Based on those results, on-demand sertraline usage can help you last around 11x longer. However, this study has a really small sample size.
If we take a look at more recent studies, a meta-analysis2 (an analysis of all the study published) tells us that the average increase is more around 4x then 11x.
Another meta-analysis published in 2019 confirmed that the average delay effect is more around 4x. Those studies measured the ejaculation delay effect of a daily dose of sertraline. hims prescriptions are indeed for daily usage. It’s also important to note that the concentration of sertraline varies from one study to another.
Source: Yi ZM, Chen SD, Tang QY, Tang HL, Zhai SD. Efficacy and safety of sertraline for the treatment of premature ejaculation: Systematic review and meta-analysis
How Sertraline is Used to Last Longer?
There are two ways a man can take an SSRI to last longer. The first one is what we call daily usage. It means that you take the drug every day at the same time.
The other way is what we call “on-demand”, “as-needed” or PNR (from the Latin “pro re nata” which translates to “as the thing is needed.”
An on-demand usage means that you only take the drugs the days where you want to use it. In this case, just like you would do with Viagra, you take the drugs only when you want to have sex.
SSRIs like sertraline are more effective when they are taken daily. The drawback of daily usage is that the drug is always in your system. That means that you have more chances of having adverse effects. Since side effects are often dose-dependent, daily usage can make them more intense.
hims’ prescriptions were at first “on-demand,” but they are now prescribed for daily usage. That’s usually how physicians prescribe most SSRIs for premature ejaculation.
How Much a Prescription of Sertraline Cost?
Cost of the Consultation
As we described, hims prescription service is based on telemedicine. That means that you have to answer questions about your health condition on your phone or computer first. Your answers will be evaluated by a doctor.
This medical evaluation is free.
Cost of the Drug
hims is a subscription service. This means that you will be billed the same amount month after month. You can cancel your subscription anytime. At the time of this writing, the monthly cost of the subscription is $29.
For $29, you will receive a pack of 5 tablets of 50mg sertraline each month. It means that each tablet costs around $5.80. If we compare this price to the retail price at different pharmacies, it’s a bit expensive. Pharmacy generally sells packs of 30 tablets, so the price per unit is lower in a pharmacy.
For example, actually, a pack of 30 generic 50mg sertraline tablets is retailed at $36 at Walgreens. That’s a price of $1.20 per unit.
Hims vs a Visit to a MD
The biggest upside of hims’ prescription service is that it’s easy to use. You only need to answers some questions online and you can try an “on-demand” drug for premature ejaculation in the following days. For that reason alone, I think hims is useful. If you want to try a drug treatment for PE, it can be a good way to start.
Pros of an In-person Visit
However, a visit to a doctor in person has its own benefits that can’t be replicated by an online service. First, although your medical consultation can be costly if you’re not insured, you will have a more personalized experience. Where hims medical practitioner’s job is to evaluate if you’re fit to receive a prescription of 50mg sertraline, a personal doctor can adjust the prescription to your specific situation. For example, he can increase the concentration of sertraline to 100mg if you tolerate the drug and want a stronger delay effect. He can also switch from sertraline to another type of SSRI if you don’t tolerate sertraline. Finally, he can switch you from daily to “on-demand” usage if he thinks it’s more practical or more effective this way.
Also, if you plan to use a drug to delay ejaculation on a regular basis, you might want to see if there is a cheaper alternative after a couple of months. When you factor your medical insurance with the retail price at pharmacies versus hims price, you might want to go to a doctor to get your own prescription for SSRI to save some bucks.
Pros of Using hims Telemedecine Service
Everything considered, hims is a useful service for anyone who wants to start using a pill to delay ejaculation. The drug they offer, sertraline, is backed by solid scientific evidence. However, hims solution can be a bit costly in the long term, and it’s not necessarily adapted to all situations.
So, if forhims.com is a good place to try medication for premature ejaculation, after a couple of months, a visit to a doctor for an in-person consultation can be a better bet.
Still, since hims’ telemedecine service is so easy to use, it might be worth a try.
Source:
- Short-term analysis of the effects of as needed use of sertraline at 5 pm for the treatment of premature ejaculation. Kim, Soo Woong et al. Urology, Volume 54, Issue 3, 544 – 547
- Efficacy and safety of sertraline for the treatment of premature ejaculation: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Yi ZM, Chen SD, Tang QY, Tang HL, Zhai SD. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019;98(23):e15989. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000015989