Chad, a 26-year-old who works a high-stress finance job in New York, considers himself “healthy as a horse.” He does, though, have one big medical concern: he can’t keep it up.

For the last few years, Chad has been using Zyn, an American brand of nicotine pouches that are meant to be placed between the gum and the lip. Zyn was first introduced in the U.S. a decade ago, but its consumption has spiked in recent years — especially among young people, which the American Lung Association has tied to its popularity on TikTok. One study found that just between 2019 and 2022, Zyn saw a 641 percent increase in sales — despite the fact that only 2.9 percent of adult Americans had tried nicotine pouches before.

Nicotine pouches don’t pose the same combustion- and smoke-related risks to your lungs as cigarettes do. The FDA even approved the marketing of Zyn pouches in the U.S. earlier this year, saying in a press release that “due to substantially lower amounts of harmful constituents than cigarettes and most smokeless tobacco products, such as moist snuff and snus, the authorized products pose lower risk of cancer and other serious health conditions than such products.” However, this doesn’t mean they don’t pose any health risks; there is a growing body of research signaling the opposite, including one study that warns about the potential harms to gums and the inner lining of the mouth.

But that’s not what concerns Chad. Since he started using Zyn, Chad’s libido has plummeted, and when he does try to have sex, he has trouble maintaining an erection.

On average, Chad consumes five extra-strength pouches (each of which contain 6 milligrams of nicotine) a day. Of those 6 mg, roughly 30 to 50 percent is absorbed into the body, meaning that every day, he ingests around 10-15 mg of nicotine, comparable to half a pack of Marlboro Reds (24 mg of nicotine ingested per pack). Chad can also recall certain mornings — usually after a night out drinking — when he’s woken up with four or five Zyns falling out of his mouth. “That’s the worst,” he tells me. “When you go out and wake up the next morning being like, ‘Holy shit, I just killed a whole can of Zyns in one night.’” (One pack of Zyn contains 15 nicotine pouches).

Chad has, of course, contemplated quitting Zyn altogether, but the nicotine helps him focus at work — so he’s been willing to trade good performance in the office for any performance in the bedroom. “Honestly, if I took two or three weeks off work, wasn’t drinking and doing my own thing, it’d be easier to quit, but I prioritize my career a lot more than my personal health in some ways,” he says.

And Chad isn’t the only guy wondering if Zyn is the reason his sex life flatlined. On Reddit, sexually frustrated men have been congregating on r/QuittingZyn to share their own experiences. Some Redditors describe their erection quality noticeably decreasing after, on average, a few months using Zyn.

“Zyn gave me erectile dysfunction and reduced libido,” writes one 30-year-old Redditor. “The causal link was very very obvious — I haven’t undergone any other change whatsoever, only Zyn. It reduced the satisfaction that I get out of sex and overall I’m just less horny. Also, [I] can’t get as hard anymore.”

My Zyn adventure is over
byu/Htreeiuee33577t inQuittingZyn

Other Redditors go as far as saying that their erections got far better once they ditched the “poison pillows,” as one user calls them. And all of this has led to many on the subreddit seeking to quit Zyn altogether.

Dr. Joshua Gonzalez, a board-certified urologist and sexual health expert practicing in Los Angeles, explains that there is a link between nicotine intake and erectile dysfunction issues. “Nicotine causes vasoconstriction, which is constriction of blood vessels, and that can definitely affect erectile function because obviously, to have a normal erection, you have to have healthy blood flow,” he explains. “So when nicotine causes narrowing of those blood vessels or long-term use, it can lead to plaque formation, and that can reduce blood flow to the penis, which can result in erectile dysfunction.”

Yes, nicotine products have been in use for a very long time, but Gonzalez points out that it’s easier than ever to get a nicotine fix whenever you want. “The invention and use of things like Zyn pouches and vapes have allowed people to consume nicotine in spaces where they would historically not have been able to,” says Gonzalez. “Now, you can vape indoors, and you can have a pouch in at any time. The accessibility of nicotine has increased over time and certainly made it easier for young people to consume.”

For Zyn’s part, spokesperson Travis Parman says the company is unaware of any erectile dysfunction or low libido issues among Zyn users. “We have not received inquiries on this topic, and I am not aware of any studies that suggest this side effect,” says Parman. “Zyn is intended as a better alternative than continued smoking for existing nicotine consumers over age 21. That’s why the FDA recently authorized it.” (While there aren’t studies directly linking Zyn use to erectile dysfunction or low libido issues, there is plenty of research linking the same issues to the use of nicotine.)

Chad has never been a cigarette smoker. Like many people his age, his nicotine addiction began in high school when he started vaping with a Juul. (In March 2023, Juul reached a $300 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit for unlawfully marketing its addicting products to minors.) Back then, Chad was ripping almost one “5-percent nicotine strength” Juul pod (roughly 30 absorbed) every day. (Again, with Zyn, his intake hovers around 10-15 mg on a normal day.)

But with his early Juul habit came Chad’s introduction to erectile dysfunction. At first, he blamed it on “whiskey dick.” But when he got to college and started trying to have sober sex with his then girlfriend, he realized the booze wasn’t to blame. “If I could manage to get it up, it would be very temporary — just enough to get it in there, for better or worse terms,” he says. “And honestly, it would never really get fully erect.”

Chad was worried. Wasn’t he supposed to be in his sexual prime? He talked to his friends about it, but never found the courage to bring up the issue with a doctor. Instead, he tried natural remedies and aphrodisiac foods like dark chocolate and avocados. Eventually, as time went on and his problems continued, he stopped trying. “I left the situation just relatively unaddressed,” he says. “And I tried to live with the reality that I was just not going to ever, or at least for the foreseeable future, fully get it up.”

But things changed when Chad ditched the Juul after learning about other major health complications related to it (developing “popcorn lungs” didn’t sound like a good time). In his senior year of college, he switched to Volt, an imported Swedish nicotine pouch that isn’t available in the U.S.

With his Scandinavian import came an unexpected sexual renaissance. Because Chad had to jump through hoops to get the Volt shipped from overseas, he ended up consuming significantly less nicotine than when he was in either his Juul or Zyn eras. And during his two years using Volt, his erectile dysfunction problems disappeared.

It was during the pandemic that, for the sake of convenience, Chad switched from Volt to Zyn. But once he had easy access to the nicotine pouches, his erectile dysfunction returned, and this time, it came with a friend: a very low libido.

For the first few years of Zyn, Chad tried to point to other foils: his stressful job, or maybe he just wasn’t that into sex. Now he points his finger at the little pouch in his mouth.

Linking low libido to nicotine, though, isn’t that simple. “Mechanistically, I’m not sure if we know why nicotine directly causes a decline in libido,” explains Gonzalez. “Libido is a complicated matter. If someone has erectile dysfunction, they often have low desire, so there may be a relationship there. Or libido may be lowering because of nicotine’s effects on hormones and erectile function.”

Still, Gonzalez advises men to ditch nicotine if low libido and erectile dysfunction are on their mind. “You should avoid all nicotine products if you’re concerned about that,” he says. “Prolonged use of nicotine is going to put you at more risk for persistent erectile dysfunction, as well as depression, anxiety and low libido.” This is because prolonged use of nicotine can negatively impact your testosterone levels.

Besides, Gonzalez says, if you’re a young, mostly healthy person and quit nicotine, it’s likely your erections and libido will bounce back. And you don’t have to scroll very far on r/QuittingZyn to see evidence of that.

One 20-year-old Redditor writes that quitting Zyn has led not only to “faster, longer and harder” erections, but also to better performance overall. Another says he didn’t think Zyn and vapes were impacting his sex life until he quit using the pouches, and now his erections are “so much better.”

“I’m 4 months into quitting pouches and smoking,” reads another comment. “Hot damn, libido came back really raging. Like, 15-year-old raging. I haven’t felt this high libido in a looong time. Quit ‘em boys.”

Erection quality?
byu/Mcatee420 inQuittingZyn

Recently, Chad has mostly avoided dating or asking women out. Without any libido, he reasons, what’s the point?

That doesn’t mean he’s giving up. Chad switched from 6-milligram nicotine pouches to 3-milligram ones at the start of Lent as “a last-ditch effort.” It’s only been two weeks on the smaller pouches, but Chad hasn’t noticed any improvement with his sexual health — but he hasn’t really had a chance to test drive things yet.

In a few weeks, though, Chad is headed to Las Vegas. He’s bringing a carry-on, a tin of 3-milligram Zyns and a prayer that Sin City will resurrect his sex drive for good.