How to Tell If an Online ED Service Is Legitimate

A legitimate service asks about your cardiovascular history, current medications, nitrate use, blood pressure and prior surgeries — and is willing to decline you. If the intake is three questions long and everyone gets approved, that's not an evaluation, it's an order form.

You should be able to find out that a licensed provider in your state reviewed your case, and you should have a way to contact them with follow-up questions. State medical boards let you verify licenses for free.

Whether it's a standard generic or a compounded formulation, the site should tell you which pharmacy is dispensing it and whether the product is FDA-approved. Compounded medications are legal and often appropriate, but they must be disclosed as not FDA-approved — a site hiding that distinction is hiding something.

Any single one of these is worth walking away over.

• No prescription required, or 'prescription-free' language
• No mention of nitrate contraindications anywhere on the site
• Claims of guaranteed results or 'permanent cure'
• No physical address, no pharmacy name, no licensing information
• Prices dramatically below every other service with no explanation
• Pressure tactics, countdown timers on medical decisions, or hard-to-cancel subscriptions

A real telehealth service handles protected health information under HIPAA, publishes a Notice of Privacy Practices, and tells you plainly whether it shares data with advertisers. Read the privacy policy — it's the single most revealing page on any health site.