Eroxon, First Over-The-Counter Erectile Dysfunction Gel, Gets FDA Approval

It shouldn’t be hard to see why this may be rather big news. On Monday, Futura Medical announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had just approved its product Eroxon as a new topical treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED). In this case, topical doesn’t just mean “of immediate relevance or interest.” Unlike an oral medication such as Viagra or Cialis, Eroxon isn’t something that you are supposed to swallow. Instead, it’s a gel that can be placed directly onto your penis to help achieve an erection. And on top of that, you won’t need a prescription to get Eroxon as it is will be available over-the-counter.

While this medication has already been available in the U.K. and Belgium, Futura Medical probably expects, ahem, big things to occur in the U.S. According to Zion Market Research, the global erectile dysfunction drugs market stood at around $3.64 billion in 2021 and is expected to, ahem, grow to about $5.94 billion by 2028. The U.S. certainly has the largest share of this in the world, the largest share of the ED market that is. North America accounted for 51.7% of total revenue from ED medications in 2022, according to Market.us. And the Massachusetts Male Aging Study found that around 52 percent of men experienced some form of ED. That en masse is quite a few men.

Besides being available over-the-counter, which means that you don’t have to have, “Oh, and doc, there’s one other thing I wanted to discuss” conversations, Eroxon does have some other potential advantages over phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors such as vardenafil (which is the generic name for Levitra), tadalafil (Cialis, Adcirca), and sildenafil (Viagra). This gel is supposed to act much quicker than other hugely popular erectile dysfunction medications that you take by mouth. For example, typically the effects of Viagra won’t kick in until 30 to 60 minutes after you’ve swallowed the pill, according to the National Library of Medicine. This means that you sort of have to plan your erection in an “Erection in T-minus 30 minutes and counting” type of way. You may have to, you know, actually talk to other person or take out the trash while waiting for such phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors to start working.

By contrast, it shouldn’t take nearly as long for things to gel, so to speak, according to the Eroxon website. The application of the gel should take only 15 seconds, assuming that you have no problem locating your penis and don’t play “hard to get” with your penis. Although you won’t have an insta-rection, if the gel works, things should start looking up within 10 minutes. And holding some kind of conversation with your partner for 10 minutes shouldn’t be that difficult.

The gel form of Eroxon may mean that it’s easier to more discretely apply it. Naturally, many men may be reluctant to declare, “I am using my ED medication now!” With Eroxon, you may be able to more surreptitiously apply the gel or claim that it is something like moisturizer, although, in general, it is better to be more upfront with your partner. Naturally, you don’t want your partner to say, “Oh, moisturizer? Here, let me use some on my face.”

Eroxon actually consists of two different medications: a vasodilator called glyceryl trinitrate and an alpha-blocker named phentolamine. Vasodilators are medication that can relax the walls of blood vessels, allowing more blood to flow through them. Alpha-blockers can relax muscles in the penis, which further promote blood flow. The Eroxon website offers the following four steps on how this combo medication works:

1. “You apply the gel shortly before sex.” Because typically that’s when you want to have an erection as opposed to before making dinner or giving a Power Point presentation.
2. “Seconds later, gel begins to evaporate, causing rapid cooling. Nerve endings are stimulated.” The cool thing about this is stimulating the nerve endings in your penis can lead to the release of nitric oxide from nerve terminals as well as blood vessels. That, in turn, can lead muscles of your blood vessel- filled corpora cavernosa to relax and allow more blood to flow into this sponge-like material in the shaft of your penis.
3. “Seconds to minutes later, recovery warming effect continues to stimulate the nerve endings in the penis.” The Eroxon website includes a diagram showing that this warming effect is supposed to stimulate even deeper blood vessels in your penis, which may be reminiscent of the Bee Gees song “How Deep is Your Love?”
4. “Minutes later, blood vessels dilate, increasing blood flow and giving you an erection.” Once more blood flows into your corpus cavernosa, the tunica albuginea, which is a surrounding membrane, then helps to trap blood in there. This is why an erection typically lasts for more than oh a second, which would make sex kind of hard to do.

Now, glyceryl trinitrate is otherwise known as nitroglycerin. You may have heard that nitroglycerin is the substance used in dynamite. Putting such a substance on your penis doesn’t mean that you’ll go out with a bang after you are done…well, you know what. It also doesn’t mean that you have to yell, “Clear the room,” after you’ve applied the gel or that you’ll have literally mind-blowing sex. Eroxon uses a diluted form of glyceryl trinitrate so that it’s no longer explosive. Doctors have long used different forms of glyceryl trinitrate to treat heart failure, high blood pressure, anal fissures, and chest pain caused by decreased blood flow to the heart, otherwise known as angina. This includes nitroglyerin pills that can be placed under your tongue and then get readily absorbed into your bloodstream as described in the following This Morning segment:

Of course, nothing works for everyone all of the time. The Eroxon website indicates that effects of gel “It lasts long enough for successful sex to occur in around 65% of people.^[1]” This presumably meant that a clinical study showed that around 35% couldn’t achieve or maintain an erection rather than did something to make their partners lose interest in sex such as calling your partner “a majestic little chicken” or using the Yoda voice during the lead up to sex. As you can see, the 65% statement on the website does have a superscript “[1]” next to it. However, clicking on this superscript repeatedly on June 14 didn’t really reveal the actual reference attached to this superscript.

This doesn’t seem like an Eroxon, Eroxoff situation. You won’t have to wipe your penis down to get things down. The website does say “After sex your erection will naturally subside, as it usually would.” As a gel, it remains more confined to your penis than an oral medication, assuming that you don’t bathe in the gel.

Keep in mind that Eroxon doesn’t serve as birth control or protect you against sexually transmitted infections. The bacteria that cause gonorrhea or Chlamydia won’t say, “Oh, what an impressive erection,” and stay away from your penis. So you may still have to keep things under wraps. The website does state that “Tests have shown Eroxon is compatible with latex condoms. It can also be used with sexual lubricants.”

The website has some oral discourse about Eroxon as well. It addresses the question of whether Eroxon may be safe to put into one’s mouth because penises have been known to reach that part of the body on occasion. The website does say that “Eroxon is safe for use with oral sex.” This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t start layering your cakes with Eroxon, though.

No medication is without potential side effects. The most commonly reported side effects of Eroxon have been headaches, dizziness, and flushing. But again, typically, a topically applied medication won’t have the same risk of side effects as an oral medication or any other medication that goes more systemically throughout your body would. So the whole “call your doctor if you have an erection lasting for more than four hours” that accompanies PDE inhibitors may not be as likely with Eroxon.

It’s not yet clear how much this gel will end up costing you in the U.S. Currently, in the U.K., you can but four single-use tubes for £24.99, which amounts to $31.49 in U.S. dollars, according to Mary Walrath-Holdridge reporting for USA Today. That’s about the cost of five Cinnabons, assuming that you don’t get extra frosting. Not that the two items are equivalent.

It’s also not yet clear when this gel will actually hit pharmacies and other stores in U.S. So it remains to be seen when you’ll be able to “get your rocks off” with Eroxon. Regardless, once it does, there’s a good chance that this gel will be very, very topical.