The new college student sex trend and why it's so dangerous

A new sex trend among college students is getting attention on TikTok − and it has doctors worried.

That trend is using honey packets, a controversial supplement marketed for sexual enhancement. In a TikTok with over 400,000 views, students at Arizona State University snicker as they either tout having taken the supplement themselves or note its use on campus.

"Hey, a man never reveals his secrets, I can't say," one college student says when asked if he's taken it, before giggling and walking off camera.

Doctors, however, are not laughing. The Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings about multiple honey packet brands, citing hidden drug ingredients in the product.

The big problem, doctors say, is that when you ingest a honey packet, you really don't know what's in it. Some of these products, they say, contain natural ingredients like maca and ginseng − which, though harmless, won't have much of any impact on your sex life, save for a placebo effect. Others, however, contain pharmaceutical ingredients, like tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis, a medication meant to treat erectile dysfunction.

"I just think it's an unnecessary thing to do," says Dr. Peter Leone, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases. "I'm all about people having good sex and sexual pleasure, but I prefer safer ways of doing it."

'Honey packets' for sex are dangerous

According to this TikTok, ASU students are no strangers to honey packets. One male student in the video claims to have taken multiple in one night.

Honey packets are nothing new, however, with many brands available for purchase at liquor stores and truck stops, much to doctors' chagrin.

"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 go to any liquor store and truck stop and buy a honey packet, and you have no idea what's in there."

This uncertainty is what makes these packets dangerous, Mills adds. Tadalafil is an extremely potent treatment for erectile dysfunction − but it can have severe side effects, including death, when it interacts with other medications, he says.

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Leone adds tadalafil also has negative consequences when it interacts with alcohol. "I would worry about kids dropping their blood pressure, having issues around passing out or getting dizzy," he says, adding it's also possible to overdose on it.

The reality is, most college-aged men don't suffer from erectile dysfunction, and, therefore, have no valid reason for taking honey packets. If a young man is struggling with sexual health, sexual performance or erectile dysfunction, then he should consult a medical professional before taking any drugs or supplements.

"If any college student is having questions about how well they're performing sexually, they should be evaluated by a sexual health specialist, and we can determine how much of it is something physiologic that we can treat or how much of it is something that we need to address from a more psychological standpoint," Mills says.

Why are college students touting 'honey packets' for sex?

The honey packets discourse online raises an important question: Why do some young men feel a need to use honey packets in the first place, assuming they don't have a sexual health issue?

"These young guys need honey packs?" wrote one TikTok commenter. "Normalizing ED (or, erectile dysfunction) is crazy," wrote another. "A college kid taking a honey packet is not a flex, I would be embarrassed to admit that," added another.

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Doctors say the honey packet interest among college students speaks to insecurities many young men feel around sex, as well as their desire to fit in among peers. Hookup culture in particular, they say, may be to blame for young men feeling more pressure in the bedroom: Not only are they worried about pleasing their partner, they also might have concerns about how they compare to other people their partner has slept with before.

"They're not thinking about having sexual dysfunction," Mills says. "They're thinking about how can I perform, how can I be better than I was or better than other partners that this person has had, and it's more of an internal competition. It has nothing to do with their erectile dysfunction."

For those facing this insecurity, it's important to know taking a honey packet isn't the solution.

"For a college student, if they already are having difficulty achieving an erection and maintaining it for intercourse, then that's a big health problem that needs to be addressed," 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."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College students are using 'honey packets' for sex. Don't do it.