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The Dangers of Stree Overlord For Male Enhancement

Katelyn Hagerty

Reviewed by Katelyn Hagerty, FNP

Written by Geoffrey Whittaker

Published 05/25/2023

The Stree Overlord pill: the next great advancement in penis enhancement that can send your sexy drive into overdrive, or another gas station sex pill designed first and foremost to make money? That’s hardly a question we can answer for you.

Luckily, we don’t have to — others have done the answering for us. 

If you’ve ever walked into a gas station, bodega or corner store, chances are you’ve seen the array of male enhancement pills, supplements, herbs and other products designed to give men an extra boost in bed, all without a prescription (or the same FDA oversight as prescription medications).

Supplements — particularly those with exotic-sounding lists of natural ingredients sold in convenience stores — aren’t doctor-recommended, but also aren’t under lock and key at your local pharmacy like other solutions to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) or premature ejaculation (PE). 

That’s why some men choose to buy them: you avoid the doctor entirely and only feel the cold, judging gaze of a gas station attendant in your transaction. 

Stree Overlord is no different. But be warned: the potential risks of using Stree Overlord outweigh the benefits of not having to make direct eye contact with a healthcare professional. 

Below, we’re going to talk about what Stree Overlord is and what science has to say about it. We’re also going to talk about the risks associated with using it and what you can expect from it.

So what is Stree Overlord? A distillate of pure alpha male testosterone and emotional unavailability? Hardly. In fact, Stree Overlord has more in common with the average multivitamin than it does with some enhancing essence. 

Stree Overlord is a supplement promoted for sexual enhancement, typically for men.

Dietary supplements are a sometimes misunderstood category of enhancement products. Like prescription and OTC medications, the FDA does monitor and regulate them to a degree, but they face different (and more relaxed) rules than other things you purchase in pill form.

We actually had trouble locating claims for Stree Overlord — or any branding materials at all. The internet offers scarce returns when searching for it, including a podcast that may or may not be related and a few other references to Stree Overlord, none of which could point to a brand website either. 

That makes it very difficult to respond to things like medical claims (or the lack thereof) that might suggest how this product is supposed to be consumed.

In fact, the only “official” reference we did find was an FDA press release warning about the dangers of Stree Overlord which, according to the agency, illegally contained sildenafil and ciprofloxacin — two prescription strength medications used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction and bacterial infections, respectively.

To be clear, neither of these potentially harmful ingredients is supposed to be in a supplement (which makes each one an undeclared ingredient) and certainly not without appearing on the active ingredient list.

The photo the FDA included of the Stree Overlord packaging showed a claim to “exceed Vigra and Cialis®” which we suspect to be a typo — they probably meant Viagra®. No worries — typos happen. It’s just a small error… by people handling prescription erectile medications. It’s like, totally fine.

We were also able to find one laboratory claim associated with Stree Overlord — an ingredients list according to a Japanese company called Mayo Kaisha Pharmacy Export (which we also struggled to find evidence of).

That site claimed that Stree Overlord lists ingredients including the following:

  • Zinc Gluconate 

  • L-Arginine

  • Catuaba bark extract 

  • Epimedium sagittatum

  • Muira Puama extract

  • Epimedium leaf extract 

  • Cuscuta seed extract 

  • Ginkgo Biloba leaf 

  • Asian Red Ginseng 

  • Saw Palmetto

  • Muira Puama bark extract

  • Catuaba bark extract

  • Hawthorn 

Only a few of these ingredients have healthy study data at all, and of those, only a few have data showing any significant value in the erectile function or “penis growth” arenas of medicine.

L-Arginine, for instance, is commonly considered to have little evidence to support its value in similar products. The same goes for red ginseng.

As for some of the exotic herbs on that list (like muira puama extract and saw palmetto), only limited testing (and sometimes only animal testing) has provided any support to claims that they benefit erectile health. 

Even if those results are replicated in other tests, scientists are years from actually claiming to understand an effective dose of medications based on these ingredients.

And that’s not even close to the bad part.

ED treatment

Hard facts on better erections

Here’s the thing about Stree Overlord: in 2020, the FDA examined an import of the supplement and found that, in addition to the ingredients described by the company that produced it, it also contained things it wasn’t supposed to. 

Now, we’ve all heard horror stories about mystery meats and we all know about the potential dangers of additives, but what made the FDA’s claims against Stree Overlord so particularly bad is that the supplements among Stree Overlord’s unlisted ingredients were sildenafil and ciprofloxacin.

Sildenafil has a number of potential side effects, not the least of which are:

  • Nausea

  • Dizziness

  • Rash

  • Headaches

  • Flushing

  • Sudden hearing loss

  • Permanent damage to penile tissue

Ciprofloxacin, meanwhile, might cause nausea, diarrhea and sensitivity to light, but serious side effects include the risk of aortic aneurysm, as well as tendonitis and tendon rupture — risks that put a stop to its former frequent use.

All of this from ingredients that weren’t supposed to be in there in the first place.

It’s also important for us to clear up some confusion here. Sildenafil is the active ingredient in Viagra, which is one of the most effective and popularly prescribed ED medications in the world. 

The difference between sildenafil in your Stree Overlord pill and your Viagra pill is huge. Viagra is a carefully manufactured, regulated and meticulously prescribed medication. When you buy it from the pharmacy, you know just how much sildenafil you’re taking, and you can follow your provider’s prescription instructions to the letter. 

With Stree Overlord (or any of the other gas station sex supplements that have been discovered to contain sildenafil), there’s no telling how much sildenafil is in every pill. It could be 20mg (generally okay for most people), but it could also be 200mg (not okay for anyone).

See the difference?

At this point, it should be pretty clear what we (and scientists and healthcare experts) think of products like Stree Overlord: go with what research supports and what experts recommend. 

What do experts recommend? Well, that depends on the sort of treatment you’re looking for. 

Erectile Dysfunction Medications

Currently the FDA has approved four medications to treat the symptoms of erectile dysfunction. They include:

  • Viagra (active ingredient sildenafil)

  • Cialis (tadalafil)

  • Stendra® (avanafil)

  • Levitra® (vardenafil)

These medications all belong to a class of medications called PDE5 inhibitors. These drugs dilate blood vessels to help the increase of blood flow to your penis where you need it most — in the bedroom. 

Medications will probably be the first thing your healthcare provider recommends because they treat the immediate symptoms of ED quickly and efficiently. 

Lifestyle Choices

Even for as effective as ED medications are, your healthcarep provider will also likely try to help you get to the bottom of why you’re experiencing ED to begin with. Treating the symptoms are great, but attacking the underlying issue is more effective in the long term. 

A lot of these long-term treatments primarily involve making better lifestyle choices. Taking better care of your body holistically can make a world of difference when you’re dealing with ED. 

Some lifestyle choice changes your provider will address include:

  • Reducing stress

  • Exercising regularly

  • Eating a balanced diet

  • Cutting back on things like alcohol and nicotine (and other drugs)

  • Getting proper rest

  • Maintaining a healthy weight

  • Checking testosterone levels

  • Cutting down on porn and masturbation

  • Communicating with your partner

If it’s not clear yet, we’ll just say it: you can take a sort of “trickle down” approach to your health. What’s good for you in a general way will usually trickle down do being good for you in smaller ways — like in the bedroom.

ED Treatment

Enjoy sex like you used to

Stree Overlord and other supplements are a shortcut. We’re not saying they or their ingredients won’t work, but the truth is that most men picking potentially-dubious supplements up at gas stations are likely doing so to avoid a very uncomfortable conversation with a healthcare professional. 

The reality is that the conversation you’re dreading isn’t that bad, and it’s not nearly as embarrassing as the problem you’re hiding can sometimes seem to be. Health concerns and problems with sexual arousal aren’t something you should treat with undeclared sildenafil or herbal ingredients.

If you know what we mean, hopefully you’re ready to do something about it today. 

What you can do is reach out to a healthcare professional and ask for professional help. You can even skip the awkward eye contact and talk to a telehealth professional via our sexual health resources

If your erectile dysfunction is a physiological one, they can help you get prescriptions for medications like sildenafil and tadalafil — FDA approved generic versions of the more famous Viagra and Cialis. 

If your problem is more of the “performance anxiety” nature, our online therapy resources are a great way to talk to someone and feel a little more comfortable from your own home or room. It’s also affordable, and cuts down on your commute.

Whether you avoid face-to-face time with a health care practitioner by connecting with us or face this problem down IRL, confront it soon — the relief is just a step away.

10 Sources

  1. Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. (n.d.). Stree overlord contains hidden drug ingredients. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Available from: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/medication-health-fraud/public-notification-stree-overlord-contains-hidden-drug-ingredients.
  2. Publishing, H. (n.d.). Beware of erectile dysfunction scams. Available from: https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/beware-of-erectile-dysfunction-scams.
  3. Srivatsav, A., Balasubramanian, A., Pathak, U. I., Rivera-Mirabal, J., Thirumavalavan, N., Hotaling, J. M., Lipshultz, L. I., & Pastuszak, A. W. (2020). Efficacy and Safety of Common Ingredients in Aphrodisiacs Used for Erectile Dysfunction: A Review. Sexual medicine reviews, 8(3), 431–442. Available from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2050052120300020?via%3Dihub.
  4. Stree overlord by Japanese Mayo Kaisha Pharmacy Export. Natural Medicines - Product. (n.d.). Available from: https://naturalmedicines.therapeuticresearch.com/databases/commercial-products/commercial-product.aspx?cpid=165969.
  5. Afexa Life Sciences. (n.d.). Natural Medicines. Available from: https://naturalmedicines.therapeuticresearch.com/databases/manufacturers/display.aspx?id=5454.
  6. Smith BP, Babos M. Sildenafil. [Updated 2022 Sep 19]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK558978/.
  7. Thai T, Salisbury BH, Zito PM. Ciprofloxacin. [Updated 2022 Sep 2]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535454/.
  8. Questions and Answers on Dietary Supplements. (2022, October 26). FDA. Available from: https://www.fda.gov/food/information-consumers-using-dietary-supplements/questions-and-answers-dietary-supplements.
  9. Dietary Supplements. (2022, June 2). FDA. Available from: https://www.fda.gov/food/dietary-supplements.
  10. Kim G. K. (2010). The Risk of Fluoroquinolone-induced Tendinopathy and Tendon Rupture: What Does The Clinician Need To Know?. The Journal of clinical and aesthetic dermatology, 3(4), 49–54. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2921747/.
Editorial Standards

Hims & Hers has strict sourcing guidelines to ensure our content is accurate and current. We rely on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We strive to use primary sources and refrain from using tertiary references. See a mistake? Let us know at [email protected]!

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The information contained herein is not a substitute for and should never be relied upon for professional medical advice. Always talk to your doctor about the risks and benefits of any treatment. Learn more about our editorial standards here.

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