Health Canada flags ‘serious’ risks of unauthorized sexual enhancement products

Dozens of unauthorized pills claiming to help boost your sex game have been taken off the market across Canada over the past year.

Dozens of pills claiming to help boost your sex game have been taken off the market across Canada over the past year, raising concerns about the health risks of using unauthorized products that keep making their way onto shelves.

Between March and December 2023, Health Canada seized 206 unauthorized sexual enhancement products from stores in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia, according to a public advisory that was updated on Dec. 27.

Over the years, Health Canada has issued multiple advisories, alerting Canadians about such products that may pose “serious health risks.”

The drugs flagged by the agency are labelled to contain or have been tested and found to contain dangerous ingredients.

Most of the recent pills that have been seized in the last month contained prescription drugs, such as tadalafil, sildenafil, levodopa, prasterone and yohimbe, that should only be used under the supervision of a health-care provider.

It’s a “very opportunistic” market that draws on younger men especially responding to the idea that they can have performance enhancing drugs with the promise of sexual prowess, erectility and virility, said John Oliffe, professor and Canadian research chair in men’s health promotion at the University of British Columbia.

He said the way these products are packaged appeals to some men’s sense of making them somehow feel “more attractive” and “more competitive.”

“It’s one of those things that sometimes guys will buy into because they can get them without a prescription or a consultation,” Oliffe told Global News in an interview.