BlueChew Review: Everything you need to know before you buy

Erectile dysfunction (ED), the inability to get or maintain an erection of sufficient strength and duration for intercourse, likely affects at least a third of men. And half of all men with ED are younger than 60.1

BlueChew aims to help men treat their ED effectively and discreetly by providing treatment plans for a handful of different prescription medications — including potent combination therapies — which can be delivered to your door after you complete a free online consultation with BlueChew-affiliated physicians. You can get effective treatment for as little as $25 a month.

Is BlueChew right for you? We’ve thoroughly explored its services and treatment options and compared it to competitors. Here, we will share the pros, cons, and all other details to help you decide whether you should give it a try.

BlueChew gives men in nearly every state a very affordable and private way to access proven treatments without having to leave their homes at all — no trips to the doctor’s office or pharmacy. BlueChew's medications include chewable and dissolvable forms of proven ED meds, specifically sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil (the same active ingredients in Viagra®, Cialis®, and Levitra®). But its flagship product blends tadalafil and sildenafil with two other drugs — apomorphine and oxytocin — to create BlueChew Gold, the company’s most advanced product. The combination of convenience, variety, and pricing BlueChew offers is unmatched by competitors, even if certain monotherapies might be slightly less expensive elsewhere.

At Innerbody Research, we meticulously scrutinize every product and service we review, including ED medication providers like BlueChew. To provide this review of BlueChew, we spent over 1,300 hours testing and researching BlueChew’s treatments and services as well as investigating its competitor landscape and reading through all of the pertinent scientific literature.

We evaluated the entire customer experience, from registration to medical consultation and, ultimately, the treatment experience itself. We tested the mechanisms for changing or canceling service. We also reached out to the customer service team with questions people like you are likely to ask, and have explored all the same processes and aspects of service for BlueChew’s close competitors as well. And for a broader perspective, we rounded out our perceptions of BlueChew with reviews from customers — people with ED who provided honest answers to various questions we asked them about their experience with BlueChew’s services.

This content was also reviewed by 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 about living healthier lifestyles.

Our process for evaluating BlueChew has evolved alongside the company. As BlueChew has expanded, so has our consideration of its place in the ED telemedical landscape. To rate the company and its products, we held them up against the top offerings from comparable competitors like Rugiet, Hims, Roman, and others.

In doing so, we concentrated on key criteria that should matter most to men interested in trying BlueChew products. These include effectiveness, safety, cost, convenience, privacy, and customer service.

Let’s drill deeper into each criterion to see how BlueChew compares to its closest competitors.

Effectiveness

BlueChew’s central product is called BlueChew Gold, which offers a quartet of medications designed to tackle ED from three different angles. Before the company began offering such combination therapies, BlueChew had focused exclusively on monotherapies — one drug at a time — the effectiveness of which has been well-established in the scientific literature and varied only based on dose and a given patient’s responsiveness.

But now, with Gold at the forefront, BlueChew has a product that could offer men something more effective than any monotherapy on its own or any combination therapy from close competitors. That’s because it combines two effective PDE5 inhibitors — specifically, the generic equivalents of Viagra and Cialis — with two other drugs offering distinct and complementary mechanisms of action for managing ED.

These two other drugs, apomorphine and oxytocin, can potentially help men with ED rooted in neurochemistry and mental health, respectively. Apomorphine is a dopamine receptor agonist typically injected in high doses in Parkinson’s patients.7 In its lower-dose oral form, its dopamine activity could potentially help men with neurogenic erectile dysfunction, or ED that has some neurogenic pathophysiology.23 Oxytocin, meanwhile, has research supporting its mood-elevating effects in both sexes, as well as its arousal-improving benefits in women.24 25 That could help the roughly 40% of men with psychogenic ED to overcome some of the depression or anxiety contributing to their dysfunction.26

Rugiet Ready is the closest comparable medication on the market, combining tadalafil, sildenafil, and apomorphine. But Rugiet does not offer a product containing those three medications alongside oxytocin, whereas BlueChew delivers either equivalent doses at each available step in the dosing tiers or slightly more sildenafil or apomorphine than Rugiet. BlueChew Gold is therefore the more effective choice.

BlueChew also offers MAX, a streamlined combination treatment of tadalafil alongside either sildenafil or vardenafil, which could be a great choice for men who are confident that their ED is associated with blood flow or those who would rather wade more gradually into combination treatments. And, of course, BlueChew maintains its monotherapies at doses that should prove effective for most men.

All this combines to make BlueChew’s catalog one of the most reliably effective on the market. Minor limitations in dose flexibility among monotherapies are really the only thing keeping our rating here from rising any higher.

Safety

For men who are considered suitable candidates for prescription ED medication, BlueChew is a highly safe option — as safe as any of its legitimate competitors providing similar prescription ED medications, like Hims or Roman. As a provider of such prescriptions, BlueChew must offer medications that are therapeutically identical to Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, and its LegalScript Certification is evidence that its products meet this requirement.

As for the drugs themselves, decades of research have shown sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil to be both effective and safe for most men, and their safety and side effect profiles are about the same with BlueChew as with any other provider. Only minor dose-based differences might separate them.

That said, it’s important to understand that these drugs do have specific potential side effects and contraindications, including back and muscle pain, headaches, GI disturbances, and vision changes.27

The picture gets further complicated when you look at BlueChew’s flagship product, BlueChew Gold. There’s less robust safety data looking at how combining ED medications can affect safety. While some research has been positive, showing that common doses of sildenafil and tadalafil, when taken together, have the same side effect rates as seen when taken individually,28 this area requires much more research. Not to mention, the addition of apomorphine and oxytocin may further increase both side effect risks and potential contraindications.

Fortunately, like most telemedical outfits, BlueChew has a thorough intake process that can determine whether you’re a suitable candidate for a specific treatment or combination of treatments.

Cost

BlueChew doesn’t always have the lowest prices for chewable ED medications, but its flagship product, BlueChew Gold, only has one serious competitor in Rugiet Ready. And every available dose of BlueChew Gold is either less expensive for the same dose you’d get from Rugiet or the same price with a slightly stronger dose.

Here’s how that works out:

As you can see, Rugiet has four dose levels to BlueChew’s three, making it slightly more flexible. But when you compare the most similar dose tiers to one another, you can see that BlueChew either has the better price, the stronger dose, or both. And with BlueChew offering oxytocin in its Gold tablets, you get an extra mechanism for tackling ED that Rugiert lacks.

Of course, these are just the lowest costs per dose. There are also introductory costs to consider, which are lower with BlueChew and come down even further with the INNERBODY coupon code, which you can use to take $25 off your first order of MAX, VMAX, or any monotherapy. The coupon is also worth 10% off on Gold plans and 15% off on Energy plans, saving you up to $93.50.

Monotherapies are less competitive, especially if you compare them to traditional tablets available from Hims, Rocket Rx, and others. But for its central product, which has the highest potential efficacy of anything in its class, BlueChew manages to present a very good deal.

Convenience

Telemedicine providers that offer ED medications tend to deliver on convenience. They have free or low-cost doctor consultations that often consist of little more than an intake questionnaire and a little messaging back and forth with a provider. But BlueChew was the first to extend this convenience into the delivery method of its drugs.

Instead of pills that most people need water to swallow and that many people find too difficult, BlueChew offered its medicines in chewable tablets.5 So, if there’s nothing to drink available or you have problems swallowing pills, you can still take BlueChew as soon as you have reason to believe sex may be on the horizon.

In the years that followed, Rugiet, Hims, and Roman released their own ED medications that were either chewable tablets or dissolvable lozenges. Not to be outdone, BlueChew released its MAX and VMAX chewable tablets that have the additional unique ability to dissolve under the tongue if you hold them there. It subsequently introduced Gold to the market with the same flexible administration — chewable or dissolvable in one tablet. With sublingual administration, the drugs can get into your system through oral membranes and start working more quickly than they would through traditional digestion. And in our testing, BlueChew’s dissolving action actually outpaced both Roman’s and Rugiet’s lozenges.

So, even as competitors unveil similar products meant to take a bite out of BlueChew’s customer base, BlueChew continues to evolve its offerings to make sure it stays more convenient than what other companies deliver.

Privacy

Given the sensitive, personal nature of these treatments, it’s paramount that any provider offers you as much discretion as possible; your ED prescriptions are nobody’s business unless you decide to tell someone.

This is an area in which most of the big names in online ED treatments excel. BlueChew, Hims, and Roman deliver their ED meds in packages that will not give away their contents. There’s typically no company name on the return address, and no distinctive markings on the box itself. We have received packages from Hims in recent years that bore the company name in the return address, but that company has become so wide-reaching in its offerings that there’s still no way a curious neighbor or delivery person would actually be able to guess what was inside.

We made an unboxing video that shows you exactly the kind of package you can expect to arrive from BlueChew if you choose to order:

As far as your data is concerned, any medical information is protected by HIPAA, which these companies must abide by if they’re doling out prescriptions. However, nonmedical data points — like cookies and statistics used for marketing — are fair game, though there are ways to opt out. BlueChew makes it pretty easy to submit a “Do Not Sell My Information” request, with a link at the bottom of its pages.

Customer service

Telemedicine providers generally do a pretty good job in customer service, offering at least one expedient way to answer your questions and offer you assistance. BlueChew, Hims, and Roman all once had outstanding phone support, with relatively short wait times and representatives who can answer most questions. But all three companies have done away with this service. Only Rugiet maintains a useful phone line, which we’ve used repeatedly for this and other reviews and guides we’ve written.

Hims and Roman have also done away with their chat support. BlueChew has maintained this support, though a relatively useless AI chatbot stands between you and answers to even the most basic questions. Fortunately, once you get past that chatbot, BlueChew reps are quick to respond with very thorough answers to even relatively complicated questions.

Once you’re a customer, the BlueChew portal is about as easy to navigate and use than anything its competitors offer, with responses to medical questions arriving well within 24 hours in our testing.

One last feather in BlueChew’s convenience cap comes from its pricing transparency. Both Hims and Rugiet ask that you complete your intake before revealing pricing options to you. Roman is more transparent than those two, but its prices are mostly secluded to a dedicated pricing page. BlueChew keeps things much simpler, listing all potential price points for you on each product page.

Taste

For chewable and dissolvable medications, it’s critical that you enjoy the way they taste — or, at least, that you can bear to consume them to get their effects. We’ve tried every major chewable and dissolvable ED medication on the market, and BlueChew’s products are consistently somewhere in the middle of the pack. They taste better than Rugiet Ready and Ro Sparks, about as good as Hims Hard Mints, and not quite as good as Ro Daily Rise Gummies.

Of course, that experience varies based on which medication you get. Our testing team generally preferred the Black Cherry Pomegranate flavor that BlueChew developed for its MAX and Gold products. Meanwhile, the Mint flavor of its vardenafil and VMAX products is less successful at masking the medicinal flavor, though their mintiness serves a double purpose of introducing a breath-freshening element in intimate moments.

Sildenafil and both as-needed and daily tadalafil products come in the company’s original Fruit Punch flavor, which our testers generally liked the least of the three flavor profiles. We haven’t had the chance yet to try BlueChew’s Energy shots in Blue Raspberry, but we’ll update this content as soon as our team has a chance to scrutinize them.

BlueChew is an online portal for men to get prescription ED treatment. The company is based in Illinois, and its medical treatments are made in the United States. It's not a pharmacy or a medical center but a telehealth website that connects you to affiliated medical professionals and enables the prescription and discreet delivery of ED medication. This level of convenience is understandably appealing to many people.

Having tested the service regularly, we can say that it remains a smooth experience. BlueChew offers a handful of ED medications that studies show are highly safe and effective for most men with ED who are deemed suitable for a prescription. Some of these are available as standalone medication, or monotherapies, while others are available as combination therapies that deliver multiple drugs in a single chewable tablet.

BlueChew isn't the only such portal, of course, but it has stood out by pioneering the "chewable medication" movement. Other major companies have tried to catch up by offering compounded ED meds of their own — most notably, competitors Rugiet, Hims, and Roman. Rugiet offers combination ED lozenges, Hims now has its Hard Mints, and Roman has its Sparks and Daily Rise Gummies, but BlueChew was the first to compound these medications in a chewable format and deliver them to a wide audience. BlueChew is still unique as the only major provider that offers only chewable ED meds; you won't find pill options here. It does have something in common with competitors, though: BlueChew doesn't accept insurance.

In terms of its geographic reach, BlueChew can serve adults across the United States, with the exception of North Dakota. There are also some minor limitations on the reach of its Gold and Energy lines, which are available in only 45 and 47 states, respectively.

At one point in time, BlueChew only offered sildenafil and tadalafil, the generic equivalents of Viagra and Cialis, respectively. The company then added vardenafil, a sildenafil alternative and the generic equivalent of Levitra. After that, the company launched its daily tadalafil and MAX and VMAX combination medications.

Most recently, BlueChew’s catalog has coalesced around its most promising product, especially for men with treatment-resistant ED: BlueChew Gold. Gold combines four ED medications to tackle the problem from multiple angles.

Here’s a quick summary of BlueChew’s catalog:

• Gold: four-part ED combination treatment including sildenafil, tadalafil, apomorphine, and oxytocin
• MAX: two-part combination treatment featuring sildenafil and tadalafil
• VMAX: two-part combination featuring vardenafil and tadalafil
• Sildenafil: the generic form of Viagra
• Vardenafil: the generic form of Levitra
• Tadalafil (as-needed): the generic form of as-needed Cialis
• Tadalafil (daily): the generic form of daily Cialis
• Energy: drinkable shot combining sildenafil and caffeine

For a company dealing exclusively in chewable medications (with the one drinkable shot, as well) this is a significant amount of variety. Competitors like Hims and Rugiet offer more variety and novelty in some of their combination treatments, like blending tadalafil with paroxetine to stave off premature ejaculation or minoxidil to spur hair growth. But these medications abandon their companies’ convenient chewables and return to the more traditional tablet form.

BlueChew has a greater variety of medications and combinations available in chewable form, even if it lacks some of these multipurpose combinations.

For most men with ED, the core ingredients in BlueChew medications — namely sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil — will be effective in treating erectile dysfunction, and combination therapies like Gold, MAX, and VMAX have an even greater likelihood of success.27 28 This means most men will be able to use one of these prescription medications in order to achieve an erection of sufficient strength and duration for sex.

BlueChew’s innovation on these traditional and effective medications is that it offers them in chewable form, with its multitherapies able to dissolve under the tongue to start working even faster.29

Sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra) has been proven effective in numerous clinical studies, as has tadalafil (the active ingredient in Cialis).2 3 BlueChew also offers vardenafil, the active ingredient in Levitra and Staxyn. Vardenafil works similarly to sildenafil, but it has a lower incidence of certain side effects.30

Sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil are classified as PDE5 inhibitors. By blocking a specific chemical — phosphodiesterae-5 — that normally signals to the body that it’s time for an erection to stop, the drugs effectively encourage blood flow to the genital region in order to allow normal, healthy erections of sufficient duration.31 For most men with ED, these prescription medications eliminate the hardships and frustrations of ED.

The other active ingredients in products like Gold or Energy — for instance, apomorphine or caffeine — offer complementary benefits to PDE5 inhibitors that could make them superior choices for men with treatment-resistant ED or dysfunction that arises through multiple channels (e.g., neurochemical, psychological, etc.).

Let’s look more closely at BlueChew’s offerings to see how they can help men with ED achieve reliable erections.

Combination therapies

BlueChew’s combination therapies, or multitherapies, include three products that offer more hope for men who’ve had limited success with sildenafil or tadalafil on its own. Each combination therapy is intended for as-needed use, rather than daily use. Because they contain tadalafil, all three should last for up to 36 hours, but the effects of their sildenafil or vardenafil should wear off before then, meaning they each peak in strength between 15-60 minutes and remain at their peak for about 6-8 hours.3 2 30

Here’s how the combination therapies are designed to work:

Monotherapy chewables

BlueChew’s original product lineup consisted of three monotherapies in chewable tablet form, each containing either sildenafil, tadalafil, or vardenafil — all PDE5 inhibitors. Sildenafil and tadalafil are available in two strengths each, but vardenafil only offers a single dose option. Let’s compare those with available research to see how they might work.

It’s also worth noting that BlueChew’s daily tadalafil includes a small set of vitamins that might improve its efficacy, including:

• Vitamin A: 1mg
• Vitamin B6: 12mg
• Vitamin B1: 21mg
• Vitamin C: 100mg
• Vitamin D3: 0.1mg
• Vitamin E: 25mg
• Folic Acid: 1mg

Studies have linked some of these vitamins with improved erectile performance and increased testosterone levels. For example, the 0.1mg dose of vitamin D3 is identical to what was shown to improve the performance of 5mg tadalafil in a study comparing tadalafil with vitamin D to tadalafil without vitamin D.21 And the 1mg dose of folic acid is double what was successful in a recent study looking at its effect on peripheral and penile homocysteine levels, which have been associated with cardiovascular issues often resulting in ED.22

Other active ingredients

BlueChew employs a few other active ingredients in its combination therapies that are worth looking at on their own to understand how they can help men fight ED.

Inactive ingredients

BlueChew’s tablets consist of more than just the active drugs they provide. To get those drugs into a convenient chewable or dissolvable form, the company compounds them with several inactive ingredients that allow the tablets to hold their shape, taste relatively good, and break down easily in the mouth. Those ingredients include:

As you can see, the basic monotherapies offer the simplest ingredient bills overall, so they may be a better place to start if you’re concerned with added ingredients in your medication.

As we mentioned at the top, ED isn’t some rare and shameful disorder; it affects about a third of all men. Of course, the prevalence of ED increases with age, but that doesn’t mean it’s unheard of among young men, either. About 5% of men under age 40 are unable to achieve an erection,6 and numerous medications can include ED as a potential side effect, including two popular hair loss treatments, finasteride and dutasteride.44

Other factors can contribute to ED, as well, including both physiological and psychological issues. These can play off one another to exacerbate ED the longer you suffer from it.

Ultimately, anything that can inhibit blood flow to the penis can be considered an organic cause, including:

But it’s just as likely that there are other factors at play, including:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Relationship troubles
• Medications

In fact, mental health concerns resulting in or contributing to ED — also known as psychogenic ED — account for around 40% of all ED cases. (To learn more, you can also visit our complete guide to erectile dysfunction treatments.)

At first glance, it’s clear that some men may overcome a few of these causes with lifestyle interventions such as quitting smoking, improving diet and exercise, or working to reduce stress. But those interventions can take time, and there’s no harm in seeking prescription help from BlueChew in the meantime.

Men who struggle with ED may be able to get an erection for a short duration, or they may not be able to become erect at all. For the many men affected by ED, the condition can be an unfortunate source of embarrassment and frustration. It’s important to remember that this is a very common health condition, and treatment options are available. BlueChew is worth exploring if you’ve noticed difficulty getting or keeping an erection in order to enjoy sex. Through the medical consultation, BlueChew will be able to determine if your underlying health makes you a good candidate for their prescription ED medications.

BlueChew should also be especially appealing to men who’ve had limited success with monotherapies in the past and would like to try a multitherapy like BlueChew Gold, MAX, or VMAX. These chewable and dissolvable tablets provide two PDE5 inhibitors in one treatment, with Gold going the extra mile with two additional medications intended to treat ED from different angles than traditional therapies.

Also, because BlueChew deals exclusively with chewable and dissolvable tablets, it makes a smart choice for men who aren’t keen on or capable of swallowing pills. Tablet forms of ED medications are typically pretty small, but problems swallowing medications of any size are very real, and chewables or dissolvables can make a big difference for those men.45

Who should not try BlueChew?

Some of the underlying causes of ED listed above — such as heart disease and high blood pressure — may ultimately mean that it isn't safe or advisable for you to try BlueChew’s ED medications. Whether you see a doctor in person or seek treatment via a telemedicine provider like BlueChew, be forthright about your medical history. If you’ve had a stroke or heart attack in the past or currently have high blood pressure, you must share those important details.

The BlueChew consultation process prompts you to share all important aspects of your history, and then, based on that history and underlying cardiovascular health, the prescribing medical professional affiliated with BlueChew will determine whether you’re a suitable candidate for one of the available ED medications.

Beyond that, it’s important to realize that BlueChew can’t cure ED; it can only make ED symptoms go away for a while. If you stopped taking any medication from BlueChew, your symptoms would almost be guaranteed to recur. Should your ED be rooted in identifiable and treatable physical or psychological conditions, you could use BlueChew to improve your sex life now while working on those underlying conditions over time. Then, by successfully dealing with those underlying conditions, you might be able to stop using medications and resume normal healthy sexual activity without medical assistance.

But there’s no shame in reaching for help from BlueChew while you work on those longer-term health goals.

While more research is needed, and BlueChew’s medications are not prescribed or intended at all as treatments for premature ejaculation (PE), studies show that the three core medications available as monotherapies through BlueChew — sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil — can make you last longer in bed (increasing how long you last before climax). Using a score based on intravaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) — basically, how long it takes a person to climax — researchers found that sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil all allowed study participants to last longer than their baseline IELT assessments.

The study looking into sildenafil was the only one of the three not to reach statistical significance in its increase, but participants still reported increased ejaculatory control and confidence compared to placebo.10 That might lead men with both ED and PE to try vardenafil instead, as its study showed more dramatic improvement in IELT scores than sildenafil.11

The most improvement in IELT scores came from the tadalafil study, which could at least partially be a result of the drug’s daily routine compared to the other two medications’ as-needed use.12

Whichever drug you choose, it appears as though they can all make you last longer in bed. But in this review, we want to make it absolutely clear that you shouldn’t seek out ED medications just because you want to last longer in bed. For starters, doctors likely won’t prescribe them to you without an ED diagnosis, and even if they did, there’s some evidence connecting recreational ED medication abuse with increased rates of ED.13 That means you could start out without ED and then potentially develop it from taking ED meds when you don’t need them.

There are other effective products for PE — available over the counter or by prescription — that help men improve the duration of their sexual activity without introducing the risk of developing ED. (If that’s what you’re looking for, we’ve got reviews of several of them, including reviews of the best delay sprays and PE wipes on the market.)

BlueChew is as safe as any typical prescription for sildenafil, tadalafil, or vardenafil unless you happen to be sensitive to one of its few inactive ingredients. For the most part, those ingredients (listed earlier) are extremely common food ingredients, so their safety is well-known.

Any BlueChew prescription will be safe for most men who don’t have cardiovascular issues. That’s because these medications act as vasodilators, which lower blood pressure. If you already have low blood pressure or take medication that affects your blood pressure, adding a prescription PDE5 inhibitor from BlueChew or any other provider can be dangerous. After all, that’s why these medicines are available only with a prescription.

BlueChew’s side effect profile is more or less identical to that of any other prescription sildenafil, tadalafil, or vardenafil, with minor variations in dose creating some higher or lower risks. As PDE inhibitors, these drugs aren’t perfectly selective for PDE5; other PDE enzymes may be affected. And when the medications do collaterally inhibit other PDE enzymes, you may experience certain side effects, including:

• Facial reddening
• Headache
• Diarrhea
• Nausea or stomach discomfort

More serious side effects could also occur, including:

• Priapism (an erection that lasts longer than four hours)
• Dizziness
• Vision changes
• Low blood pressure

Other active ingredients included in some BlueChew products can introduce additional side effect risk, as well. Let’s look more closely BlueChew’s main active ingredients to see how safe they might be.

Side effects of sildenafil

Sildenafil’s side effect profile is slightly more extensive compared with other as-needed PDE5 inhibitors, like vardenafil and avanafil (Stendra), mainly because those other drugs were developed later and have been designed to be more selective of the PDE5 enzyme.

In studies looking at adverse effects associated with sildenafil, the following were the most common:2

• Flushing (reddening of the skin and face)
• Headache
• Nasal congestion
• Heartburn
• Dyspepsia (stomach discomfort)
• Visual impairments, including problems with color perception

That last effect — visual disturbances — comes from the fact that sildenafil also weakly inhibits PDE6, which is associated with certain visual processing pathways.46 Men who experience this side effect typically switch to tadalafil or vardenafil with success. To learn more, please visit our comprehensive guide to BlueChew side effects.

Side effects of tadalafil

Tadalafil presents many of the same side effects as sildenafil, though at different rates of occurrence. In a side-by-side comparison with sildenafil, one of the most noteworthy observations is that tadalafil doesn’t pose a risk of visual disturbance.47 This is because tadalafil lacks the impact on PDE6 seen with sildenafil. There is, however, another enzyme tadalafil does inhibit in addition to PDE5, and that’s PDE11.8 As a result, tadalafil users sometimes report muscle pain — specifically, lower back pain.

All told, tadalafil’s most common side effects include:

• Headache
• Dyspepsia
• Nasopharyngitis (upper-airway symptoms of a common cold, like runny nose and sneezing)
• Back pain

Side effects of vardenafil

As a medication you take on an as-needed basis, vardenafil is closer to sildenafil in its performance than tadalafil, and its safety profile is nearly identical. But vardenafil was developed more recently than sildenafil, and its selectivity for PDE5 is greater than sildenafil’s. As a result, it doesn’t collaterally affect PDE6 in a way that causes visual disturbances, making it a great choice for men who experience those impairments when taking sildenafil.

The most common side effects of vardenafil are:9

• Headache
• Rhinitis (nasal congestion, runny nose, and sneezing)
• Flushing
• Dyspepsia

You might be torn between sildenafil and vardenafil, and you’re not sure why you wouldn’t want to try avoiding possible (albeit rare) vision effects by going for vardenafil first. It’s worth noting that vardenafil is slightly more expensive than sildenafil. And considering that most men involved in clinical studies stick with treatment despite mild adverse effects, you’d be wise to try sildenafil first unless directed otherwise.

Side effects of apomorphine

A lot of what we know about apomorphine’s safety and tolerability comes from studies in Parkinson’s disease patients, which is the cohort for whom the drug was initially developed. Some of the side effects seen in those studies were alarming, including nausea, vomiting, hallucinations, dizziness, and physical weakness.48 But these studies looked at subcutaneous apomorphine injections.

Fortunately, later research looked at the sublingual route of administration in Parkinson’s patients, and these found nausea to be the only persistent side effect.49 The effect was dose-dependent, with the 5mg dose causing much more nausea than the 4mg dose. The 3mg dose was well-tolerated.

And in an early human trial of sublingual apomorphine for ED, that 3mg dose performed about as well as the 4mg dose while being better tolerated.14

Side effects of oxytocin

As with apomorphine, we have some useful side effect information on oxytocin delivered in a format that differs from BlueChew Gold. In this case, it’s not subcutaneous injection, but rather intranasal administration. In a large review of such studies, researchers point out reactions like GI upset, soft stool, dizziness, lightheadedness, hallucinations, insomnia, and aggression.50

The good news is that another study that set out to compare intranasal and oral oxytocin described dramatic differences in action, implying that side effects from oral administration could be much less severe.51 Research hasn’t given us much to go on for dose response, either, so it’ll be up to you to monitor your reaction to BlueChew Gold and report to your doctor any specific side effects that occur.

Are combination therapies more dangerous?

In theory, combination therapies should be more dangerous than monotherapies, especially if they contain the same doses you’d normally take for an individual treatment. It makes sense; a greater variety of medications taken at the same doses and all at the same time should have a higher degree of risk associated with it.

The problem with supporting that claim is that most of the specific combinations of medications and doses seen in ED multitherapies haven’t been studied. So, we’re left assuming, which is never the best place from which to make medical decisions.

However, we aren’t completely without good information here. There is some research looking at sildenafil combined with tadalafil that shows a comparable side effect profile to either on its own. Specifically, one combination study looked at adding 50mg of as-needed sildenafil to a regimen of 5mg daily tadalafil.28 Not only did the combination outperform monotherapies, but it had the same incidence of adverse events, showing no increase in risk.

Of course, this doesn’t take into account that BlueChew’s multitherapies are all intended for as-needed use only, or that the doses involved tend to be higher and include other medications, like the apomorphine and oxytocin in BlueChew Gold.

Ultimately, it’ll be up to you and your consulting physician to determine whether you’re a good candidate for a multitherapy, and men new to ED meds might be better off starting with a monotherapy to see how they respond.

When to see your doctor

In most clinical studies, common side effects, like headaches and flushing, tended to go away with regular use. If these or other side effects persist for you, we suggest talking to your doctor about an alternative PDE5 inhibitor; you might end up switching from sildenafil to vardenafil or tadalafil, for instance.

If you experience any cardiovascular symptoms, especially those related to dangerously low blood pressure — lightheadedness, dizziness, confusion, or significant nausea — you should discontinue use and call your doctor to rule out your medication as a cause.

There are two important considerations most men will have when approaching BlueChew’s potential costs:

• What it costs to try BlueChew
• What it costs to use BlueChew long-term

Let’s look at each question individually, so you can get a firm sense of what you stand to spend.

What does it cost to try BlueChew?

Trying BlueChew is remarkably inexpensive, not least of all because Innerbody readers can use the coupon code INNERBODY at checkout to knock $25 off their first month of any MAX, VMAX, or monotherapy plan. In many cases, that results in a free trial, but if you opt to try a larger quantity at the outset or start your journey with a simple multitherapy, you’ll still get $25 off and pay whatever the remainder is. And that coupon applies to Gold and Energy to the tune of 10% and 15% savings, knocking up to $93.50 off the cost of the top Gold tier.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

As you can see, you can try any of BlueChew’s monotherapies for free at their lowest quantity shipment, with significant discounts in price and cost per dose for its Energy shots and MAX and VMAX multitherapies. The impact on the price of Gold is less pronounced, but it still represents good savings on a product that’s already less expensive than its closest competitor in Rugiet Ready.

What does it cost to use BlueChew long-term?

After the INNERBODY discount you can take off your first month, prices return to normal. But BlueChew offers better prices per dose as you purchase higher quantities of medication. These aren’t the prohibitively expensive five-month or one-year supplies required by competitors to unlock best prices. They’re typically just higher quantities within a single month’s supply, or quarterly shipping and billing rather than monthly.

Here’s a look at the potential up-front and long-term costs of BlueChew’s various products:

Some of these costs per dose come down significantly when you opt for larger shipments and longer-term billing. But for many men, the up-front costs of certain medications will be a little prohibitive. If you can work your budget around those high initial costs, you’ll save the most money in the long run.

Below, we provide up-to-date pricing details for every BlueChew product currently in the company’s lineup. Keep in mind that you can knock $25 off the first month of any MAX, VMAX, or monotherapy plan listed below with the coupon code INNERBODY, which can also save you 10% on Gold plans and 15% on Energy plans.

Gold

Gold’s pricing is a little more complicated compared with other products because it’s offered at three strength levels (Base, High, and Extra) and it’s available in monthly or quarterly shipments.

Here’s what the breakdown looks like for each dose level:

Gold Base Dose

Gold High Dose

Gold Extra Dose

MAX and VMAX

MAX and VMAX have a much simpler pricing breakdown than Gold. They’re only available as quarterly shipments, and the prices between them are identical. Here’s what that looks like:

Sildenafil

If you choose sildenafil, you can order your treatment in packs of 6, 10, 17, or 34 tablets. Remember, each dose will last about 4-6 hours. Men who are very sexually active may want to order larger amounts.

There are two different dosages available: 30mg and 45mg. The company determines your monthly pricing based on this dosage in addition to the number of doses you want each month.

Tadalafil (as needed)

Tadalafil is a much longer-lasting medication that produces similar effects to sildenafil or vardenafil. BlueChew offers the same set of plan tiers for tadalafil — and at the same prices — although the number of pills per month and the dosage of active ingredients are different.

These plans accommodate men across a multitude of lifestyles. If you anticipate a handful of sexually active days in a particular month, you’ll find the Active Plan most economical. Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the Pro Plan provides treatment for nearly all waking hours in a given month, particularly when you consider that tadalafil remains active in your system for around 24 hours.

Tadalafil (daily)

Right now, BlueChew’s daily tadalafil, which includes the vitamins we described earlier, is only available in a 9mg tadalafil dose. However, you can opt for quarterly deliveries to bring down your cost.

Here’s how that breaks down:

Vardenafil

Unlike sildenafil and as-needed tadalafil, BlueChew’s vardenafil comes in only one dose: 8mg. This is somewhat on the low end of the 5-20mg range we’ve encountered researching available studies, but it should still be effective.

Here’s what vardenafil’s pricing looks like:

Energy

While BlueChew’s Energy shots are set up for monthly delivery and arrive in packs of up to 60 bottles, it’s important to remember that taking sildenafil more than once per day is not recommended. If you opt for the 60-pack, you should probably pause your subscription until you need to reorder, so that you don’t end up stocking your cabinets with much more than you need.

Here’s how Energy’s pricing is set up:

Does BlueChew take insurance?

Unfortunately, most insurance plans don’t offer coverage for ED medications, either directly or in the form of reimbursements. You can always check with your provider to be sure, but it’s likely a waste of your time.

For Medicare recipients, Parts A and B won’t cover ED medications, but some Part C (Medicare Advantage) and Part D programs will partially cover the cost of generic ED medications.

While BlueChew branding is friendly and approachable, the company remains appropriately serious about doing its due diligence as a provider of prescription treatments. Our testers found that the affiliated medical professionals are diligent in their follow-up about your answers to the health questionnaire.

This is a strong signal of quality and trustworthiness – exactly what you should want in a company such as BlueChew. These ED medications are very safe when prescribed to people who don’t have underlying health conditions that would contraindicate them. In other words, to be safe, you need to be honest and thorough in providing information during the questionnaire. Meanwhile, BlueChew makes sure it has all of the necessary medical information to conclude that you’re a good candidate for the prescription medication.

While testing the service for this review, we found the process to be efficient, thorough, and fully trustworthy. SMS notifications let you know when there’s a need to address any question from the medical professionals. Logging in, you’ll easily find the prompt to address those questions. BlueChew gives you a user-friendly and clear interface that helps you keep the process moving forward.

Step 1: Create a free account.

You’ll first be asked to register an account with BlueChew, which involves providing your email address and the state where you’re located. In 2024, BlueChew gained the ability to serve people in South Carolina, but due to complexities surrounding telemedicine laws, the company still can’t serve people in North Dakota at this time. There are some minor limitations on where the company can ship Gold and Energy, as well.

Step 2: Provide some medical information for the BlueChew doctor.

After this, you’ll have to enter your medical information and complete a quick questionnaire. You’re then prompted to enter your name and date of birth as they appear on your ID, as well as your ID-verified birth date.

BlueChew then asks you:

• Why you’re choosing BlueChew products.
• If you’re already using any medication for ED or you’ve used any in the past.
• Some basic fitness questions, such as whether or not you can walk a mile in 20 minutes and how long it takes to climb two flights of stairs (questions that help to ensure that the medication won’t overwhelm your cardiovascular system and potentially lead to heart attack or heart failure).
• Detailed questions about supplements and medications that you’re taking (nitrates, for example).
• If a medical professional has ever told you that you’re not healthy enough for sex.
• A number of specific questions related to cardiovascular health — these questions help BlueChew understand your medical history as it relates to blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, previous episodes of fainting, blurry vision, bad headaches, chest pain, chest pressure, and energy levels. You’ll need to know whether you have been diagnosed with high or low blood pressure in the past.

Nearly all of these questions are yes/no or multiple choice. It’s important to make sure you provide accurate information during the questionnaire. When you’ve finished, click the Submit button in order to present your answers to BlueChew’s affiliate medical professionals and proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Specify payment and shipping information.

Enter your shipping and billing address, your credit card information, and your shipping preference. When it comes to the latter, you currently have three options, all of which were estimated at less than a week for our testers. The least expensive shipping option was $5.

Step 4: Give proof of identification.

Like all telemedicine consultation companies, BlueChew must collect proof of identification to provide care. In this step, you’ll need to upload a file of your government ID or take a pic of your ID. Snapping a photograph of your ID is easy, whether you use a mobile device or a desktop webcam to do so. Whichever way you choose, BlueChew vows to protect your information.

Step 5: Undergo a BlueChew medical provider evaluation.

BlueChew’s affiliated licensed medical providers will review your information to make sure you’re a safe candidate for one of the prescription treatments. The consultation and approval generally happen within 24 hours, though you may need to wait 1-2 days for the company to complete its full process.

Our testers found the review process and responses to be prompt and efficient; within a few hours of creating an account, they received notifications about questions from the affiliated medical professionals. These questions focused on gaining more insight into health history and any concerns from the answers to the consultation questionnaire.

Keep in mind that if any of your questions lead to disapproval, this is in your best interest. All three of BlueChew’s medications have a powerful effect on your cardiovascular system. If you’re not in suitable physical health, sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil can cause unwanted and, in some cases, unsafe side effects. That’s why a prescription is necessary.

Step 6: Receive your meds in the mail.

After the medical providers review your information and approve a prescription, the medication will be delivered to your door. To protect your privacy, BlueChew uses discreet packaging, with no branding.

While BlueChew may have been the first to bring chewable ED meds to the market, plenty of competition has cropped up since then. Some of the providers we’ll discuss in this section make viable alternatives to BlueChew for certain medications, but none can compete with the pricing and potential efficacy of BlueChew Gold.

BlueChew vs. Rugiet

Like BlueChew, Rugiet’s flagship product — Rugiet Ready — is a multitherapy combining sildenafil, tadalafil, and apomorphine into a sublingual lozenge. Their respective doses are somewhat similar, as are their prices. But BlueChew Gold is either slightly less expensive, stronger, or both less expensive and stronger at each comparable stop on these two companies’ dosing schedules.

You’ll recall that apomorphine acts as a dopamine agonist for specific dopamine receptors, the stimulation of which can help trigger an erection.14 Rugiet’s sublingual dose is either 2mg or 3mg, which enters the blood more slowly and is less than most injections, to begin with, yet still proves effective in most studies.15 BlueChew offers those two doses, as well as a 4mg dose in its strongest version of Gold, which may improve responses even further.

BlueChew Gold also includes oxytocin, an ingredient Rugiet Ready lacks. Oxytocin can potentially alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety that contribute to psychogenic ED cases, making Gold a more comprehensive therapy for more men.24

Here’s a useful head-to-head comparison of BlueChew Gold and Rugiet Ready:

As you can see, even when Rugiet manages to roughly match BlueChew’s pricing and PDE5 inhibitor doses, BlueChew’s superior apomorphine dosing and oxytocin inclusion set it apart.

BlueChew vs. Hims

One of BlueChew’s biggest competitors, Hims, offers treatment for ED as well as a host of other conditions, like hair loss and PE.

In general, we at Innerbody Research find Hims to be an excellent telehealth option across its range of services. However, men new to ED medication may prefer to start with BlueChew, if only because you can try its medications for free or at a deep discount with that INNERBODY coupon code.

You can try sildenafil, tadalafil, or vardenafil for free with BlueChew’s first-month trial; all you need to do is visit BlueChew through this review. No such free trial option exists at Hims. For the many men who have never taken ED medication, the opportunity to try before you buy is unmatched.

There are certain circumstances when you’d likely find Hims ED options advantageous:

• Compared to BlueChew once the free trial ends, Hims has lower prices for daily tadalafil in both tablet and chewable forms.
• Men who struggle with both ED and PE (or ED and hair loss) may find the single interface of Hims more manageable.
• Some men who’ve tried ED medication in the past want to stick with what has always worked; they don’t want to rock the boat at all. If what worked in the past was brand-name Cialis or Viagra, they sometimes want to stay the course with their trusted brand, even though it’s more expensive and there’s no evidence it actually works any better than a generic. Hims offers both brand names, while BlueChew doesn’t offer either of them.
• In addition to sildenafil and tadalafil (and their respective brand-name options of Viagra and Cialis), Hims offers another medication called Stendra, which is fairly expensive compared to the generics but less expensive than Viagra. It works similarly to sildenafil and tadalafil but takes effect faster, lasts longer than sildenafil, and carries an even lower risk of side effects such as headache and flushing of the face.52 For those who can afford the steep price, Stendra could be preferable.
• Some men are somewhat resistant to PDE5 inhibitors, and Hims tablet doses reach a little higher than BlueChew’s chewables. Hims’ chewables can also combine ED medications for men who haven’t had success taking just one at a time.
• Hims occasionally combines PDE5 inhibitors with other, unrelated treatments, like medications for hair loss. If such a combination appeals to you, Hims is the better choice.

BlueChew vs. Roman

Roman — another online company offering prescription ED treatments — can prescribe sildenafil and tadalafil, as well as their respective brand-name versions (Viagra and Cialis). All of these are available from Roman in pill form, with a chewable daily tadalafil and a sublingual tablet combining as-needed tadalafil and sildenafil. However, Roman’s prices are higher, and its doses are less flexible than BlueChew’s. Meanwhile, BlueChew offers sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil (generic Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra) in chewable form.

Some men swear by the brand name, insisting that Viagra and Cialis work better for them than the active ingredients without the brand. These men will be willing to pay the higher prices for the brand names, which cannot be found at BlueChew. However, if that describes you, we’d recommend you choose Hims rather than Roman; if you’re willing to pay those very high prices for Viagra and Cialis, you could consider trying Hims’ Stendra, which might be preferable.

Roman also currently has no answer to BlueChew Gold, with its most complex combination therapy consisting of just sildenafil and tadalafil.

BlueChew vs. Viagra

BlueChew’s sildenafil and branded Viagra are therapeutically identical to one another, as they have to be per FDA guidelines. Sildenafil is the active ingredient in Viagra and is commonly prescribed as its generic equivalent now that the patent for Viagra has expired. That patent expiration is also why BlueChew’s sildenafil is so much less expensive than branded Viagra.

One big difference between branded Viagra and BlueChew sildenafil is that BlueChew’s tablets (no matter the specific medication) are chewable, whereas Viagra requires a glass of water or exceptional swallowing skills to take. Another major difference is that BlueChew’s doses come packaged individually in small pouches, whereas Viagra typically comes in a bottle that contains many pills, making it harder to keep handy when you’re out on the town.

If you can get branded Viagra or its generic equivalent through your primary care provider and have your insurance cover it, it might be preferable to BlueChew, even if you have to swallow a pill.

When it comes to privacy, there are two big questions:

• Does BlueChew keep my medical information private?
• Does BlueChew’s delivery process respect my privacy?

Thankfully, the answers are “yes” and “yes.” BlueChew’s packages are very discreet, so the nature of your purchase will be your business alone (as it should be).

When you create your account with BlueChew, you are by default opted into receiving SMS notifications and marketing emails from the company. If you have a shared email account or if you just don’t want to receive such emails, you can opt out by visiting your Profile page. But we suggest you leave these default settings in place for the duration of the sign-up process.

To be as comprehensive as we can in our research and review process, we look at the broader landscape of customer reviews online. In this case, Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) were pertinent places to check reviews.

BlueChew boasts an A+ rating from the BBB, even as its customer reviews there tell a slightly different story. At the moment, BlueChew holds a 1.16-star rating out of a possible 5 stars. However, that’s from only 31 reviews dating back to 2023. We normally like to see many more reviews than that before we can assume statistical significance. And customer ratings on the BBB site always skew very negative.

The picture is a little clearer on Trustpilot, where more than 1,800 reviews render a 3.9-star rating out of the same potential 5 stars.

On both sites, most users’ complaints revolve around things like shipping errors in which a smaller amount than ordered was shipped, as well as some men finding the medications ineffective. But PDE5 inhibitors, while very effective, are not universally effective, so there are bound to be some men for whom certain monotherapies don't work. That’s where combination treatments like BlueChew Gold might make a difference.

There are also customer reviews displayed on BlueChew’s website itself. All of these current reviews are positive, with over 20% describing excellent customer service as a major factor in their positive experience. It may be noteworthy that nobody mentions anything negative in these reviews at all except in passing (a few statements about how the company quickly resolved a service issue); as a general rule, we always take a company’s own curated reviews with a grain of salt.

In developing this review and making it as thorough as possible, we tested all aspects of BlueChew’s customer experience that we could and also spoke with BlueChew customers to hear their reviews about the entire experience. This effort is all the more important to us in light of the lack of other reviews online.

We asked these customers what parts of the service and treatment worked well and what didn’t work as well. Those who shared their reviews had overwhelmingly positive experiences, except for a small fraction of people (about 10%) who complained that the chewables didn’t work and/or expressed frustration with telemedicine in general (but this would also apply across the landscape, not just to BlueChew). Those negative reviews were as realistic to us as the positive reviews, based on our copious research and broader experience; telemedicine isn’t a perfect fit for everybody, and prescription ED medications won’t work for all men.

We’ve curated a group of these BlueChew reviews below, chosen to reflect the overarching positive-negative breakdown and common themes and also because these particular reviews included advice or details that could be particularly helpful for people considering BlueChew. We protect anonymity using fake names.

Customer review: “David”

Question: “Why did you choose to try BlueChew?”

Answer: “My primary’s a woman, and I tried talking to her about it and just couldn’t. I came home that day and looked around online. I liked the idea of something chewable and convenient like that.”

Question: “How well does it work for you?”

Answer: “I was surprised, it worked pretty well out of the gate. I wasn’t useless in bed or anything before, but I had to work really hard to keep things going. With this, it was like my privates were on autopilot. Haha, like autoprivates.”

Question: “Which medication did you choose?”

Answer: “Gold, baby!”

Question: “Did you ever have to work with customer service? If so, how was your experience?”

Answer: “Not yet. Things were pretty straightforward.”

Question: “What’s your favorite thing about BlueChew?”

Answer: “Well I mean, the fact that it works. Besides that, I actually don’t mind the taste. I know it’s probably not everybody’s favorite or whatever, but I think it’s pretty good.”

Question: “What was your least favorite thing, and why?”

Answer: “It’s cool that you can kind of choose whether you want it to dissolve if you chew it. But whenever I want to let it dissolve, I just end up chewing it. I can’t help it.”

Question: “Would you recommend BlueChew to friends?”

Answer: “If I had any!”

Question: “If you had one piece of advice for others who are about to try BlueChew, what would it be?”

Answer: “You’re probably not supposed to start with the ones with several drugs in them like I did, but the doc looked over my stuff and I was good to go. So, I guess, just be clear and open with the doc and try what you want to try. ”

Customer review: “Andre”

Question: “Why did you choose to try BlueChew?”

Answer: “I think maybe I struggle with some kind of performance anxiety, when it comes to sex. That’s just my guess. This wasn’t something I dealt with in the past — in fact, if you told some of my old crew, they wouldn’t believe it. But I’m dealing with it now. So I probably could see a counselor to find out the deeper reasons for it, but BlueChew solves my problem, and it’s way cheaper than therapy!”

Question: “How well does it work for you?”

Answer: “It works really well. Worked from day 1 and continues to work well over a year later. I haven’t had to change my dosage or anything. I mean, before BlueChew, I could get an erection but had trouble keeping it. But now, I can literally go for an hour. It’s incredible.”

Question: “Which medication did you choose?”

Answer: “Sildenafil is what I use.”

Question: “Did you ever have to work with customer service? If so, how was your experience?”

Answer: “I never had to, unless you’re talking about the consultation at the beginning? I had back-and-forth during the consultation, answering some medical questions beyond the ones they originally asked. Aside from that, I’ve just been getting the medication in the mail without a hitch each month.”

Question: “What’s your favorite thing about BlueChew?”

Answer: “It solved my problem, plain and simple. I don’t know why I have anxiety about sexual performance. I don’t feel like I have anxiety in other parts of my life. But now I don’t have to wonder as much because the treatment solved my problem.”

Question: “What was your least favorite thing, and why?”

Answer: “I don’t really have a least favorite thing, to be honest. I guess paying for something each month would be my least favorite thing, but that’s not exactly fair. The treatment costs money – that’s life!”

Question: “Would you recommend BlueChew to friends?”

Answer: “Yes. In fact, I’ve recommended it to someone already.”

Question: “If you had one piece of advice for others who are about to try BlueChew, what would it be?”

Answer: “Since it’s chewable, you might think you can save even more money by biting off half of a tablet at a time and making the supply last longer. But trust me, you should take the normal dose that you were prescribed — it probably won’t work for you if you bite it in half. I tried splitting one, and it just didn’t work. So not only did I have a bad experience because of that, but I wasted a normal dose. So rather than save money, I wasted some money. Just take the normal dose — don’t get cute!”

Customer review: “Ted”

Question: “Why did you choose to try BlueChew?”

Answer: “Well, I have ED. In my case, it’s apparently a mild type of ED, but it was making sex difficult, and I was embarrassed. I had tried various things before — supplements and creams. I tried horny goat weed. None of that seemed to make a positive difference, though. So, even though I was reluctant to do any prescription medications, I finally decided to try BlueChew. I could try it for free — that’s why I ended up saying, why not? It required no commitment.”

Question: “How well does it work for you?”

Answer: “It works really well. It was night and day, the difference between BlueChew and the stuff I had been taking before.”

Question: “Which medication did you choose?”

Answer: “Tadalafil. I wanted the all-day kind of potential.”

Question: “Did you ever have to work with customer service? If so, how was your experience?”

Answer: “I’ve never had to reach out to them for anything, no. I have paused my service, though. I had to leave town on business for several weeks and knew I wouldn’t be having sex. Pausing it saved me over $100! And it was really easy, just switching a setting in my account.”

Question: “What’s your favorite thing about BlueChew?”

Answer: “Besides the fact that it actually works? I think my favorite thing is how convenient and private the whole experience is. I hate going to the doctor’s office.”

Question: “What was your least favorite thing, and why?”

Answer: “Probably the taste, at first — it’s kind of a sweet, medicinal taste that I didn’t love. But I got over that pretty fast, and now I associate the flavor with being unencumbered in bed. So I love it now.”

Question: “Would you recommend BlueChew to friends?”

Answer: “If they have ED, absolutely. It turned my life around.”

Question: “If you had one piece of advice for others who are about to try BlueChew, what would it be?”

Answer: “Just try it. You can try it basically for free. So whatever reluctance you’ve got about doctors or prescriptions, don’t wait. Life’s too short to wait. It works, I had no side effects at all, and they make it affordable.”

Customer review: “Paul”

Question: “Why did you choose to try BlueChew?”

Answer: “Okay, so my father-in-law recommended it, which I know sounds weird, but he’s cool. And my mother-in-law was blushing like crazy when he said it, like she couldn’t even look at me. So I figured it might work.”

Question: “How well does it work for you?”

Answer: “It’s great! Seems to work fast. I could always get it up, but I couldn’t really keep it up, so I felt confident taking it pretty close to show time.”

Question: “Which medication did you choose?”

Answer: “Max.”

Question: “Did you ever have to work with customer service? If so, how was your experience?”

Answer: “I actually got sent the other Max, the one with vardenafil, by mistake. They replaced it immediately and sent a message to my doc on the site to see if it would be safe for me to take it, which it was. So I kept it and used it. Super helpful.”

Question: “What’s your favorite thing about BlueChew?”

Answer: “I liked that there were these combination treatments. I’d tried Viagra and Cialis before, and they were okay, but the combination was clearly better for me.”

Question: “What was your least favorite thing, and why?”

Answer: “I guess I’d be perfectly happy spending less on a pill version, but I do also like the chewability, so I don’t know.”

Question: “Would you recommend BlueChew to friends?”

Answer: “Definitely.”

Question: “If you had one piece of advice for others who are about to try BlueChew, what would it be?”

Answer: “Maybe make sure to tell your partner you’re taking it? My wife was not expecting me to perform like that. A pleasant surprise, but she later said her first thought was that I’d been cheating and I was thinking of someone else. I had to show her the torn packaging in the bathroom trash!”

Customer review: “CJ”

Question: “Why did you choose to try BlueChew?”

Answer: “I’ve had ED for quite a while, I guess, but not at a level where it really ruins my sex life, until recently. I found BlueChew online, decided to give it a try. It seemed like a convenient way to deal with it.”

Question: “How well does it work for you?”

Answer: “The chews didn’t work. Not well enough, anyway.”

Question: “Which medication did you choose?”

Answer: “Tadalafil, and then sildenafil.”

Question: “Did you ever have to work with customer service? If so, how was your experience?”

Answer: “Yeah, when the initial shipment didn’t do anything. Company was responsive, as any of this type of thing is, but IMO just can’t compare to getting help from a doctor you trust and see in person. I went this route trying to save time, but feel like, in the end, it was more of a hassle. I wasted time rather than saving it because the first try didn’t work at all, and then the 2nd one they gave me didn’t do enough. Frustrating, you know? This kind of thing seems like it’ll be convenient, but never is.”

Question: “What’s your favorite thing about BlueChew?”

Answer: “I guess it’s the fact that I could try the first chews for almost no money. Certainly wasn’t the taste or how well they worked.”

Question: “What was your least favorite thing, and why?”

Answer: “I can’t get the time back — the back and forth, waiting for shipments and stuff, trying to decide whether to opt for a different approach. This is my life. Maybe this would’ve happened anyway if I’d gone in to see a doc, but I don’t think so. Nowadays, I think more likely I would have waited like a month to be seen, but then would’ve gotten to the bottom of my problem faster.”

Question: “Would you recommend BlueChew to friends?”

Answer: “No — I’m over the online doctors thing; this was the last straw. It’s not for me, I guess.”

Question: “If you had one piece of advice for others who are about to try BlueChew, what would it be?”

Answer: “Go see somebody in person who is sitting there, able to examine you. None of these online folks care about me — why should they? They don’t know me, I don’t know them. You probably don’t care what I’m telling you, either. So I’d ask other guys with ED issues, do you really think online doctors care about you the way your regular doctor does? I don’t think so. It’s not good, people!”

Customer review: “Henry”

Question: “Why did you choose to try BlueChew?”

Answer: “I’m in my mid-40s and started noticing that things were changing. I wasn’t waking up with erections anymore. And I also would sort of go soft during sex, just out of the blue. I didn’t know why I didn’t have the stamina, and that freaked me out. A friend of mine had been getting healthcare online for hair loss, and I happened to notice there were ED treatments available online too. Long story short, I shopped around a bit and found BlueChew.”

Question: “How well does it work for you?”

Answer: “It worked really well once I got the dosage right.”

Question: “Which medication did you choose?”

Answer: “I use tadalafil, 9mg.”

Question: “Did you ever have to work with customer service? If so, how was your experience?”

Answer: “I only had to work with BlueChew when it became clear my initial dosage wasn’t quite working out for me. Thankfully, when we upped the dose to 9mg, things were perfect. It was easy working with them. I’ve been using 9mg for a year now and could not be happier.”

Question: “What’s your favorite thing about BlueChew?”

Answer: “I think my favorite thing is how easy it’s been to get this treatment. I never had to go anywhere. It arrives right at my door like clockwork. I live kind of out in the sticks, so delivery is a huge bonus.”

Question: “What was your least favorite thing, and why?”

Answer: “Generally speaking, I’m not a person who likes to take medication. I take as little as possible and see doctors as little as I can. I just feel like I’m better off without putting many chemicals into my body. But I made one exception in this case, and I’m still taking tadalafil because it was totally worth it.”

Question: “Would you recommend BlueChew to friends?”

Answer: “I would. This would be an easy recommendation — I do my homework, and this is a good deal. If somebody needed ED medicine, BlueChew is the best first step in my book. Glad I found it.”

Question: “If you had one piece of advice for others who are about to try BlueChew, what would it be?”

Answer: “My advice would be: if you find BlueChew isn’t giving you the results you need, don’t give up. Talk with them because it’s possible you’re like me and just need the higher dose.”

Customer review: “Kevin”

Question: “Why did you choose to try BlueChew?”

Answer: “I started using BlueChew close to six months ago. I had been getting generic Viagra from the pharmacy up to that point, but it was getting really expensive for me. I had no coverage for the ED medicine and honestly wondered if I’d have to choose between having sex and paying the bills. So when I discovered BlueChew, I realized it cost a fraction of what I had been paying at the pharmacy. It was an easy decision.”

Question: “How well does it work for you?”

Answer: “BlueChew works just as well as the stuff I’d get from the pharmacy. I never had an issue with how the pills worked, but it was the cost that really became problematic for me. BlueChew is affordable for me, which is fantastic.”

Question: “Which medication did you choose?”

Answer: “The sildenafil one because that’s the active ingredient in Viagra, which is what I had previously been taking. Viagra always worked for me. Actually, BlueChew works better than the Viagra did because I never realized my dosage must have been too high when I got it from the pharmacy. I was getting headaches with the Viagra. Now with BlueChew, my dosage is 30mg, and it works without causing any of the headaches.”

Question: “Did you ever have to work with customer service? If so, how was your experience?”

Answer: “No, the consultation was the only time I’ve talked with anyone.”

Question: “What’s your favorite thing about BlueChew?”

Answer: “The price! You know I used to be embarrassed when I couldn’t keep an erection. But nowadays, I’m only embarrassed that I had been spending much more money than I needed to.”

Question: “What was your least favorite thing, and why?”

Answer: “That’s a tough one. I guess I’d say the $5 shipping. I think it would be even cooler if they allowed for a free-shipping option. But that’s getting greedy — seriously, no complaints. They’re way more affordable than the pills I used to get.”

Question: “Would you recommend BlueChew to friends?”

Answer: “Definitely.”

Question: “If you had one piece of advice for others who are about to try BlueChew, what would it be?”

Answer: “If you’re like me and you try an ED medication and end up getting a headache, talk with the medical experts. They can help you get your dosage right. I was so relieved when it was clear that I could get good treatment for this without dealing with headaches.”

Earlier in this review, we examined how BlueChew compares to other telemedicine providers that offer prescription ED medications, including:

• Viagra
• Cialis
• Stendra
• Sildenafil
• Tadalafil
• Vardenafil
• Apomorphine

In these comparisons, BlueChew fares quite well overall. But there are many men out there who would prefer to try something other than a prescription-strength solution at the outset, especially if their ED is only mild or sporadic. These men still have plenty of options, though many will likely end up using a prescription at some point, if for no other reason than reliability and convenience.

Let’s take a look at several of the most common nonprescription options men have for addressing ED, exploring how likely they are to help you as compared to BlueChew.

Mental health care

As we discussed when addressing BlueChew’s decision to include oxytocin in Gold, up to 40% of all ED cases are psychogenic. And ED itself can cause anxiety and depression in men who suffer from it. That’s why mental health care can potentially be a solution for men whose ED is deeply rooted in their psyche.

Fortunately, you don’t have to leave home in search of good mental health care any longer. Numerous online providers now offer telehealth mental health appointments for talk therapy and psychiatry, and many take insurance.

You can read more about them in our guide to the best online therapy.

Nutritional supplements

The supplement industry has been trying to help men improve their performance in the bedroom for decades. As the science and manufacturing processes have evolved, some even appear as though they could make a real difference, at least in milder cases of ED. However, there are some serious caveats to consider before trying a natural ED supplement, as many cause similar cardiovascular side effects as BlueChew’s prescription options but have been less rigorously studied.

If you’re thinking about reaching for a supplement because it seems safer, you might want to reconsider. There’s much more credible research into the exact doses of BlueChew’s ED medications than there is into any one ED supplement ingredient, let alone the blends that contain them.

Nutritional supplements that may help with ED are generally divided into three subcategories: male enhancement pills, testosterone boosters, and volume pills. Let’s take a quick look at how each category is designed to understand them a bit better.

We research, test, and review these various products separately. When we drill down into the ingredient lists and associated studies of products in all three categories, a common theme emerges. The vast majority of ingredients appear in doses far below those shown effective in studies. That makes it particularly hard to recommend many of them as potential replacements for BlueChew’s prescription ED medication.

Some companies do better than others in providing you with reasonable doses, and the combination of ingredients should theoretically bolster their efficacy compared to studies of a single ingredient. Ultimately, you’ll need to consider the potential risks and benefits of these ingredients and talk to your doctor before adding them to your regimen or choosing them rather than more thoroughly studied treatments from companies like BlueChew.

Here are our top recommendations for each category, with links to our full reviews comparing the best options in those subcategories:

• Best male enhancement pill: Performer 8
• Best testosterone booster: Innerbody Labs Testosterone Support
• Best volume pill: Bird & Be Male Fertility Power Pack

Knowing which kind of supplement you should take in your particular circumstance can be tricky. Having trouble getting an erection doesn’t necessarily mean you have low testosterone. (To that point, specifically, you can test your testosterone levels with convenient at-home kits that are incredibly accurate and relatively inexpensive compared to trying a bunch of supplements that might not work.)

Penis pumps

Penis pumps have been misrepresented in the media over the years to imply that they exist to enlarge a man’s penis. Some less reputable pump manufacturers have jumped on this misconception and have decided to perpetuate it in the hopes that it will help with sales. But pumps are not designed to make a penis any bigger — they’re a treatment for ED.20

Penis pumps work as you might imagine. You insert your penis into a tube that seals against your body. A pump of some kind — often manual, but sometimes automatic — progressively draws air out of the tube, creating a gentle vacuum. That vacuum pressure causes blood to rush to your penis, resulting in an erection when successful. For increased comfort and efficacy, many pumps are designed to be used with water in the vacuum chamber.

For most men, penis pumps are too cumbersome, too difficult, and too inconvenient for practical use, especially for those with active sex lives. Compared to popping a pill (or chewing a BlueChew tablet) each day or around an hour before you expect to have sex, you have to set aside the time to use the pump — often in the shower — which can put a damper on the mood. You’ll also experience varying degrees of effectiveness with a pump, especially as you’re just starting out. But there’s very little guesswork with prescription medication.

If you’re interested in pumps, we generally recommend those made by Bathmate, as its HydroMAX line boasts a great balance of cost, build quality, and effectiveness. We have a review of the best penis pumps if you want to learn more.

ED Rings

ED Rings are extremely simple devices that apply pressure around the base of the penis to help maintain an erection. They do so by constricting the blood flow out of the penis. The great thing about ED rings is that they’re one-time investments without the potential side effects associated with prescription medications.

As such, we would recommend ED rings for men whose cardiovascular health precludes them from trying PDE5 inhibitors like those from BlueChew. But ED rings and PDE5 inhibitors aren’t mutually exclusive either. There’s anecdotal evidence that ED rings increase sexual pleasure, and some are even available with vibration functions. You may find that a combination of BlueChew and an ED ring works best for you.

Lifestyle adjustments

No one likes to be told that their problems can be solved with diet and exercise. And life doesn’t always permit us to eat our healthiest and exercise regularly.

But those two things — diet and exercise — can sometimes play a big role in erectile function. Increased body fat tends to cause constrictions in blood flow, which directly affect erectile health. A stronger heart pumping blood through less constricted vessels should improve your erections.

There are other lifestyle adjustments you can make to help address erectile dysfunction, as well. For example, we know that stress can cause ED, so reducing stressors, meditating, and even seeking talk therapy can help treat ED at the root.

Fatigue is another potential root cause of ED. Getting proper sleep is the first step to addressing fatigue, but the other considerations discussed here — diet, exercise, stress — can all influence your fatigue levels, as well.

If you drink too much, you can cut back. If you smoke, you should stop. Most of the things you could do to improve your overall health and quality of life will also have a positive effect on erectile function.

Many of these approaches are interconnected; like the ED rings discussed above, they aren’t mutually exclusive to the prescriptions you get from BlueChew. Ultimately, you can use BlueChew to treat your ED while also seeking more holistic treatments that could reduce your reliance on BlueChew’s medications in the long term.

Final takeaway

After hundreds of hours of research absorbing scientific journal articles, comparing BlueChew with its competitors, testing the customer experience with BlueChew and the rest of the field, and considering any viable alternatives, we believe that BlueChew is one of the best avenues for ED treatment available to men in need. BlueChew is safe, reliably effective, affordable, discreet, and convenient, with medical professionals who will evaluate your condition and prescribe you appropriate medication to recover your erectile function.