Disclaimer: None of the information in this article constitutes medical advice. All statements are merely the opinion of the writer(s). We recommend that patients follow their doctor’s guidance in regard to prescription medication.

Hims is an online health platform for men. The brand describes their service as “personalized, doctor-backed treatment plans” and sells everything from prescription erectile dysfunction (ED) meds to hair loss meds to anxiety and depression meds.

But does For Hims have better health products for men than other online health platforms or is it just branded better? How does the cost of the same medication compare between For Hims and other sites? Does gendered mental health care even make sense? And how do real users rate and describe using For Hims?

In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we compare the price of the same medications on For Hims and Cost Plus Drugs, which is a discount prescription medication site founded by Mark Cuban.

We’ll also share our thoughts on why gendered mental health treatment may not make sense, give our overall take on whether For Hims is worth the money and share real, unsponsored user reviews of For Hims.

Is For Hims Overpriced?

For Hims prescribes generic medications, which means that the cost of these medications can be directly compared to other websites retailing the same drugs.

Cost Plus Drugs is the online pharmacy with the best prices by far that we’ve come across, so we’ll use this site as a benchmark to compare drug prices to Hims.

Below is a price comparison for five randomly-selected drugs:

Finasteride (hair loss)

• Hims: $22
• Cost Plus Drugs: $4.50

Sildenafil (generic for Viagra – ED)

• Hims: $180
• Cost Plus Drugs: $5.40

Tadalafil (generic for Cialis – ED)

• Hims: $225
• Cost Plus Drugs: $5.70

Propranolol (anti-anxiety)

• Hims: $195
• Cost Plus Drugs: $4.20

Valacyclovir (genital herpes)

• Hims: $360
• Cost Plus Drugs: $9.00

Hims ships a fixed amount of pills on a subscription basis, so to make the cost comparison equal we compared the cost per 30 tablets (which is a standard order on Cost Plus Drugs).

So for example, Hims is currently charging $60 for 5 pills of valacyclovir at a dosage of 500 milligrams (mg). Cost Plus Drugs sells 30 pills of the same dosage of the same drug for $9. So we compared the cost of the same amount of drugs (30 capsules).

We consider Hims to be grossly overpriced. You can get the same drugs for sometimes under 5% of the cost on Cost Plus Drugs.

But does their mental health treatment targeted to men specifically make sense? We’ll share our thoughts in the next section.

Does Gendered Mental Healthcare Make Sense?

We take issue with gendered marketing of mental health medication, because we haven’t seen any indication from the FDA or in clinical research that these drugs are more effective for one sex than the other. An antidepressant like bupropion is prescribed to both men and women if they suffer from depression.

As we discussed in our For Hers reviews article (another gendered online pharmacy run by the same company as For Hims), our concern is that patients may be wary of using a medication that’s branded to the opposite sex, thinking it may not be effective for their sex.

So for example, if bupropion is marketed as an antidepressant for men, women may be less likely to want to try it, even though it’s equally effective regardless of gender or sex.

The one type of mental health treatment that may be more effective with gendered solutions is therapy. A medical review published in the Psychological Reports journal found that women experienced better results from therapy when matched with a female therapist.

But to our knowledge, For Hims does not provide therapy. They just sell medications.

We recommend that consumers be wary of health companies making gendered claims in regard to prescription medication.

Real, Unsponsored For Hims User Reviews

A YouTube creator named Steve Hogue claims to have experienced side effects from a medication prescribed on Hims:

Another YouTube creator named George Schirra used a variety of Hims products for hair loss over the course of two years, and shares his experience in this video with over 45,000 views:

Real For Hims Customer Complaints

In the last three years, over 150 customers have submitted complaints about the company behind Hims on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website.

Many customer complaints related to refund issues, such as this complaint from Feburary 21st of 2023: 

“The company misleads and automatically charges your card on file without any approval nor letting you know how Much its going to cost. I was shocked to be charged ****** USD over the weekend and when i informed them to cancel and refund me because i was unaware of this , they refused. They mislead the patients and fraudulently charge the card on file.”

To the credit of Hims & Hers Health Inc., they respond to every single customer complaint and try to resolve the issue, which is the sign of a high-quality brand.

Our Clean Hair Growth Picks

Happy Head Topical is our top hair growth solution.

This formulation uses FDA-approved hair loss ingredients like minoxidil which is clinically shown to increase hair count by 11%.

The brand also publishes the percentage concentration of each active ingredient, which is a sign of quality and transparency.

Interested consumers can check out Happy Head Topical Finasteride & Minoxidil at this link to the product page on the brand's official website.

Nutrafol Hair Serum is our top over-the-counter (OTC) hair growth and hair quality promoter.

This product contains Lactobacillus probiotics which were shown to promote hair growth in a medical review published in the Molecules journal.

Niacinamide is included, and a 2021 clinical trial concluded that "Our data demonstrate that niacinamide could enhance hair growth."

Interested consumers can check out Nutrafol Hair Serum at this link to the product page on the brand's official website. 

Pros and Cons of Hims

Here are the pros and cons of Hims as a brand in our opinion:

Pros:

• Effective, FDA-approved treatments
• Personalized skincare may be useful

Cons:

• Dramatically more expensive than competitors
• Gendered mental healthcare may be confusing
• Some users complain of sexual side effects
• Some customers complain about the company’s billing practices
• Unclear value proposition

Conclusion

We do not recommend For Hims and we don’t really understand what specific value the company offers. They do not appear to have funded any clinical trials proving that their approach is more effective than just taking the medications alone.

And this brand charges huge markups on the medications they sell compared to lower-cost options like Cost Plus Drugs.

We consider Hims to be overpriced and their gendered approach to mental health treatment may confuse patients in our opinion.

Some customers of For Hims complain of sexual side effects from the hair loss treatments, which is why we typically recommend trying natural solutions before progressing to pharmaceutical hair loss solutions.