A new sex trend that college students are into is making the rounds on TikTok − and doctors are concerned.
That trend is honey packets, a supplement which is considered to be a sexual enhancement product. In a now viral TikTok with 400k+ views, students at ASU laugh as they either say they personally took the supplement or saw others on campus do so.
‘A man never tells his secrets, I can’t tell,’ one college student responded when asked whether he has taken it, only to burst into laughter and walk off camera.
Doctors, however, are not laughing. The Food and Drug Administration has placed alerts on several honey packet brands due to drug content not stated in the product.
The big problem, doctors say, is that when you ingest a honey packet, you really don’t know what is in it. They argue that some of these products include natural enhancers such as maca and ginseng − which are in any case completely safe but will not have much of an effect on your sex life other than the placebo effect. Some of them are for pharmaceutical use such as tadalafil, which is used in the manufacture of Cialis, a drug intended to cure erectile dysfunction.
‘I just think it’s an unnecessary thing to do,’ said Dr Peter Leone, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases. “I am all for people enjoying good sex and sexual pleasure but I like it to be done safely.”
Sex In Exchange For Money In ‘Honey Packets’ Are Risky
As per this TikTok, honey packets are not new to ASU students. In the video, one male student says that he has taken multiple in one night.
Honey packets, of course, are not a novelty, and there are many brands of honey that can be bought at liquor stores and truck stops, which is not very pleasing to doctors.
‘It’s crazy,’ says Dr. Jesse Mills, a health science clinical professor and the director of the Men’s Clinic at the University of California, Los Angeles. “You can walk into any liquor store and truck stop and buy a honey packet and you don’t know what is in it.”
This is what makes these packets dangerous according to Mills. Tadalafil is a very effective medication for erectile dysfunction − but it is very dangerous when taken with other drugs, he explains.
Leone also notes that tadalafil also has some adverse effects when taken with alcohol. “I would be concerned with children lowering their blood pressure, having problems with fainting or dizziness,” he notes, saying that it is also possible to overdose on it.
The problem is that the majority of college-aged males do not have erectile dysfunction, and thus, have no excuse for popping honey packets. Any young man facing issues of sexual health, sexual performance or erectile dysfunction should seek the help of a doctor before using any drugs or supplements.
“If any college student is having questions on how well he or she is performing sexually, he or she should be seen by a sexual health specialist and we can ascertain the extent to which it is physiologic and which part is physiologic and which part is psychological and therefore treatable,” Mills says.
College Students Are Now Using ‘honey Packets’ For Sex: Why?
The honey packets discourse online raises an important question: Why would some young men feel the need to use honey packets in the first place, if they do not have a sexual health concern?
“These young guys need honey packs?” wrote one TikTok commenter. “It’s crazy to normalize ED (or, erectile dysfunction) is crazy,” said another.
Doctors have attributed the honey packet interest amongst college students to the anxieties many young males have around sex, and their need to conform to what other males are doing. Hookup culture in particular, they say, may be to blame for young men feeling more pressure in the bedroom: Not only are they concerned with making their partners happy but they also might have some feelings of insecurity about them being with someone who has slept with many people before.
“They are not thinking of having sexual dysfunction,” Mills says. They’re thinking of how can I dance, how can I dance better than I did or how can I dance better than other partners this individual has had and it is more of a competition within. It has no relation to erectile dysfunction of the men involved.”
For those experiencing this insecurity, it is good to note that a honey packet is not the answer.
“If a college student is already struggling to get an erection and sustain it for intercourse, then that is a health issue that must be solved,” Mills says. “But if they think that it’s just going to help them last longer, help them party harder, then it’s probably not going to work unless they really believe in it – in which case anything works because the placebo effect is incredibly powerful.”
