Online ED Medications… Are They Safe?

ED is one of the most common sexual health issues for millions of men worldwide. The risk of ED for a man increases with age. ED affects an estimated one in four and one in 70 men in their 40s, respectively.

The rise of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors like sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil certainly revolutionised the treatment of ED, providing men with a noninvasive means to deal with sexual problems. Online pharmacies raised concerns over whether or not the drugs will be safe and effective when ordered online. On this page, we set out to provide a thorough look at online ED medications, their safety and the potential risks of unregulated distribution.

Online ED Drugs… Are They Safe?

ED Medications: An Overview

PDE5Is like sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil work by pumping more blood into the penis to facilitate erections in the wake of sex. These medications have been proven to be effective in hundreds of clinical trials with 60%-80% responses (Shabsigh, 2004). PDE5Is are usually only prescribed and dispensed by certified pharmacies following a consultation with a healthcare professional. This ensures that patients know exactly what they are taking, how much they need, possible side effects, contraindications, and possible interactions with other drugs.

But the rise of online pharmacies has created a surge in websites that offer prescription-free ED medications, raising doubts as to their safety, efficacy and quality. Although some online pharmacies might be licensed and have stringent quality controls, many are unregulated and may sell counterfeit, contaminated or sub-potent drugs that will put unsuspecting customers at risk.

Counterfeit Medications: A Looming Threat

Using a fake drug, often developed in a lab underground, is a major concern in the online ED drugs industry. They’re often marketed as legitimate medications, but they may have incorrect or even dangerous ingredients, including paint thinners, drywall, and other industrial chemicals (Food and Drug Administration, 2019). Such chemicals can have devastating health effects, such as liver disease, kidney failure, and death.

In addition, fake ED medications might not be as active as advertised on the label, making them ineffective against ED. Sometimes, they carry sub-effective amounts of the active ingredient, resulting in sporadic or insufficient therapeutic activity. In the process, consumers risk prolonging their ED symptoms and postponing seeking medical attention.

Unregulated Online Pharmacies and Consumer Safety

The lack of oversight at most online drugstores merely adds to the risk of online ED medications. Although legit online pharmacies have the same high quality assurance measures as traditional pharmacies, unlicensed platforms may be able to evade these regulations and expose their customers to risk.

Taking drugs without a prescription is one of the major worries about unregulated online pharmacies. This neglect can cause improper doses, contraindications, and possible drug-drug interactions that have grave health implications. What’s more, these sites can fail to inform consumers about potential side effects, so that consumers do not know the risks of their prescription medication.

Aside from delivering drugs that aren’t legitimate, unlicensed online pharmacies can also be immoral by divulging personal and financial data to outsiders without consumers’ consent. These privacy violations lead to identity theft, spamming, and other cyber crimes.

Navigating the Online ED Medication Market

Though online ED pills can be dangerous, consumers can take precautions to remain safe and make sure that they are getting legitimate products.

Consumers should, above all, only buy ED drugs from licensed, legitimate online pharmacies. They also use strict standards for quality control to ensure their services are safe, reliable, and authentic. Furthermore, they typically need a prescription, so consumers are appropriately diagnosed and monitored.

If you want to know whether or not a website is a legit online pharmacy, consumers should be on the lookout for the following signals:

1. License:

The first and the most important signal that an online pharmacy is a good faith seller is that they are licensed by the regulating body in the region that the pharmacy serves. Online pharmacies are positioned to operate within rigid policies and regulations that could be issued and enforced by regulatory bodies such as the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy in the US, or the General Pharmaceutical Council in the UK. These institutions make sure online pharmacies follow all regulations regarding storage, handling, dispensing and so on.

In order to verify the licensedness of a pharmacy, the seals of approval from the authorized regulatory authority have to be displayed on the website of the online pharmacy. Any trusted online pharmacy will display those badges prominently on their site and even include links to the appropriate regulatory authority so that validity can be checked.

2. Prescription Requirement

Another thing to indicate an online pharmacy’s legitimacy is that they require a valid prescription before it supplies you with any ED product. There are risks to prescription drugs, and that risk must be managed by appropriately trained professionals. Any legitimate online pharmacy will seek out a prescription from a licensed physician before selling ED medication to a patient and ensure proper patient care and monitoring.

Obviously, better a prescription: Stipulations regarding the need for a prescription on the pharmacy’s website. Additionally, ensure the pharmacy has a process in place for reviewing and validating prescriptions, such as directly speaking to the physician who wrote the prescription or seeking additional information from the patient.

3. Verified Pharmacist

A third sign of a good Internet pharmacy is that they keep an authorised pharmacist in-house to take orders, read prescriptions and even provide drug information. Physicians play an important part in prescribing safe and effective medications and can provide professional counsel to help patients make informed decisions about treatment choices.

There should be ample notification to consumers that if they need assistance, a registered pharmacist is standing by to offer advice and support. This can include a direct telephone number or email address of the pharmacist, as well as the pharmacist’s certification and experience.

4. Physical Address

The fourth criterion of whether an online pharmacy is real is that it provides an accurate physical address and telephone number. Fraudonlinepharmacies do not have an office at all and should something go wrong, it may be very difficult or even impossible for customers to obtain compensation. Instead, a legitimate online pharmacy will have full and current contact details on file, including an address, telephone number, and email.

A pharmacy’s location should be verified by a map platform such as Google Maps. They must also make sure that the phone number appears consistently on the website as well as any social media pages associated with that drugstore; these are shows of professionalism and evidence of being settled.

5. Privacy Policy

Fifth and final hallmark of an online drugstore will be its transparent stance on privacy, no-frills policies on how it discards customer’s personal and financial information. If a consumer’s sensitive data, like medical records or credit card numbers, gets released to someone who does not know the consumer, it could potentially destroy the consumer’s life, so these pharmacies cannot take the necessary privacy steps to ensure their own security.

Any potential consumer, for any particular pharmacy, must first read the privacy statement of the pharmacy to understand exactly how that pharmacy plans to store, process, and share its customers’ information. They must confirm whether the pharmacy uses secure encryption methods, like SSL technologies, which will ensure that their data stays safe on the way.

Conclusion: Online ED Medications… Are They Safe?

Online medication is certainly more convenient in treating men who have ED and can remain anonymous for a short while. But online pharmacies are often unregulated, imposing certain risks to the safety and effectiveness of medicines in the form of sub- or counterfeit drugs, misuse, and contraindications. In doing so, the consumer should have a high concern about their safety and use digital licensed websites which follow rigorous quality controls against sites that don’t operate on a prescription basis. Second, using safe and potent ED treatments will minimise risk when you’re exposed to the unregulated male drug market online.