Thousands of Men Are Using Breath Mints to Get Rock Hard. Here’s How - VICE

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Somewhere in the Venn Diagram of a Tic Tac and and a medical prescription sits Hard Mints.

These are Hims‘ compounded, wintergreen-flavored take on erectile dysfunction treatment, and the reason a fairly straightforward health story somehow also became a meme. It’s chewable, and comes in a tin you could mistake for Altoids. Maybe these are the “curiously hard” mints?

Hims‘ own product messaging is designed to help you get hard and stay hard, which is, objectively, a funny sentence to type. But treating it like a novelty item misses what’s actually going on here.

Because getting treatment for erectile dysfunction used to mean an appointment, being uncomfortable in a waiting room (where you feel like the youngest person in there), and a pharmacy line.  

Hims has built its whole model around skipping that chain with an online platform offering access to more than a dozen ED treatment options, from generic and brand-name medications to its own proprietary formulas. And it all takes place through a process that happens on your phone, instead of in a waiting room.

The bigger pitch isn’t just convenience, though. It’s personalization. Hims doesn’t hand every customer the same pill in the same dosage. A licensed medical provider works through your specific needs, goals, and health history before determining what, if anything, gets prescribed. No insurance is required, and everything ships in discreet packaging… which lowers the barrier to actually starting treatment in the first place.

Most ED treatment comes in exactly one format: a pill you swallow. Hims offers that path too, with access to Viagra, Cialis, and their generics at up to 95% cheaper than brand name, but it also offers Hard Mints (available in wintergreen mint and wintergreen-lemon flavors) as one option within its broader lineup. 

It’s certainly not a replacement for the rest of the portfolio. Just an alternative for anyone who’d rather skip the pill altogether. Across the full menu, Hims offers three form factors and a range of dosages, so the provider assigned to your case actually has room to build personalized treatment options instead of defaulting to whatever’s on the shelf.

Pricing starts at less than $2 a day, with subscription frequencies ranging from monthly to every 12 months. Every plan also comes with unlimited online check-ins and unlimited dosage adjustments, so going back to your provider doesn’t mean paying for an entirely new consultation.

Every ED treatment through Hims, Hard Mints included, starts with a free online consultation with a licensed healthcare provider who determines whether a prescription is appropriate for you. If it’s not, your provider will have a reason as to why. You’re not going to be sold something you shouldn’t be putting in your body.

The process itself is a short online intake form, reviewed by that provider, with no in-person visit required at any point. If a provider does prescribe, treatment ships directly to your door in discreet packaging, and support continues afterward through unlimited provider messaging and an in-app live chat. If a question comes up in week three, you won’t be required to book a whole new appointment.

For anyone who’s been avoiding ED treatment because the process felt like a hassle or embarrassment, Hims’ provider-guided model trades the waiting room for a phone screen and trades a single default pill for an actual menu of personalized solutions.

Plus, with Hard Mints, you’re killing two birds with one stone in getting hard AND making your breath more pleasant for whomever those curiously hard mints are working for.

Prescription products require an online consultation with a healthcare provider who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. Restrictions apply. See website for full details and important safety information.

Hard Mints is a chewable compounded product and has not been approved by the FDA. The FDA does not verify the safety or effectiveness of compounded drugs.