Femin Plus Supplement: My Honest (And Slightly Awkward) Personal Review

 

Go here first: Get Femin Plus Official Discount

 

 

Okay. Deep breath. This is one of those posts I've written four times, discarded three. I think writing publicly about my libido is like letting the internet into your bedroom and asking them not to notice the laundry in the corner

But I get asked. I get asked about it frequently. Ever since I casually mentioned Femin Plus in my post on things in my medicine cabinet, I've been receiving concerned emails. Wait, did it actually work?

And, here we are: my unsponsored, nobody-paid-me-to-write-this review of the product itself.

Why I sought it out in the first place

Context: I'm 41. I have two kids, a demanding job, and a lovely and bemused husband. My sex drive was, in no particular order, slowly dying. It stopped being something I thought about and turned into something I did when I was bored. There was no dramatic downward spiral - more like the ebb and flow of life between the birth of my second child and us moving twice in a year. I had a chat to my GP (highly advised, please do, and I shall repeat this because I mean it) and was given a list of the usual suspects - sleep, stress levels, thyroid, iron, anything hormonal, how is the relationship? All totally reasonable, and all answered with you're tired and your life is loud .

Which was fine, it's just that a supplement I can buy at 11:47pm on my phone while doomscrolling is different to something I have to buy on the NHS via a recommendation.

This is how I ended up on the Femin Plus website with a glass of lukewarm wine, and the same energy as a woman about to make a mildly irrational purchase. The ordering process itself (mercifully) boring

The packaging was discreet (please, let us have that), as I have a lovely but nosy neighbour Ellen who collects my parcels when I'm at work. The package had nothing on it to alert her to the nature of its contents. Thank you, Femin Plus. I opened a small bottle, some leaflets, and the familiar scent of herbal concoction that all supplements appear to legally require. The capsules are not small, shall we say, but not horse-pilled either - if you're easily gagged, you'll be fine with a whole glass of water to wash it down.

What's in it

I'm not qualified to give you a scientific deconstruction. I've got a phone and a suspicious nature.

Femin Plus is a plant extract plus vitamins formulation - think things like maca root, damiana, ginseng, ginkgo, along with your B vitamins and minerals. Check the label on your bottle, because these vary from brand to brand, and I'm sure you'd rather have what's in front of you rather than what I remember. My honest view is that these are the usual suspects, with a selection of small and wobbly studies behind them, or things that have been used for hundreds of years, which is an interesting but scientifically different place to base medicine on. I didn't come in looking for magic pills, and hope you didn't either

Weeks 1 and 2: nothing

I want to state this clearly because I think it's in this section that people give up.

Two weeks with nothing happening. I felt the same as I did when I was not feeling interested in sex, but with the added bonus of having spent forty quid on fancy vitamins that make me feel guilty. I remember saying to my friend Priya on the phone in the kitchen on the day of week eleven, Well, that's forty quid I could have spent on a proper lasagna, and she said, You spent forty pounds on sexy vitamins and you're mad about lasagna?

(Priya is not a supportive friend, but is a hilarious one, and there's a difference.)

I kept going because I had a three month pack, and I was going to finish it. The three month thing was always the point, wasn't it?

Week 3 and onwards: the shift

Here is where I have to be careful, because I'm trying not to write that this was a miracle product, and I'm trying not to write one of those reviews where a woman says she turned her life around on day 19.

What happened was subtle, and in fact kind of sneaky.

I began noticing it in the ways that I thought about it. Not that my sex drive was like, hey, I'm interested in having sex today, but it was that mental door that had been firmly shut was ajar, unlatched. Physically I think I was slightly more responsive, and less like a landline in a cellphone world. I don't know if it was the product, but here's my honest accounting of the confounding factors that could have played a role:

• My youngest was sleeping through the night in that same period

• I had started walking 30 minutes at lunch

• I was paying more attention to the matter, which is a kind of intervention itself

• Placebo is a real thing and I'm not immune to it

Something had changed, and I can't swear on anything that it was the Femin Plus supplement. I can say that in taking it, I felt like I was doing something about it instead of being mildly resentful of my body, and that may well have been worth the money.

Things nobody tells you

The timing thing. I take it with breakfast. On an empty stomach the first few days I had a slight herbal burp sensation which I would describe as unwelcome. Eating fixed it entirely.

The remembering thing. I am terrible at this and bought a £3 pill organiser with the days of the week on, and now keep it behind the coffee filters, because that's the one cupboard I open every morning without fail. Stacking behaviour on top of coffee addiction: the dream of behavioural psychology.

The awkward conversation thing. At some point my husband found the bottle. There was a pause. He read the label. Longer pause. Then he said, gently, Do you want to talk about it or do you want me to pretend I didn't see this? and that was one of the better conversations of our marriage. Ten out of ten. Would recommend being caught.

It's not a switch. If you're expecting a pill that works in an hour and you should be sceptical of anything that says it is, it isn't. This is not a quick fix. It's a slow cumulative thing that may take a month.

Let's talk pricing

It's not cheap. It's the kind of thing where you have a think about how much you spend in a month, and have a think. The bulk deals are obviously designed to get you to buy three months at a time, which is a bit cynical, except three months is how long you should give it to see if it works. Annoying when the marketing tactic and the honest thing are the same thing.

I'd budget for a three month trial and be extremely brutal about it. Set a reminder, write down how you feel on day one. We're all really good at convincing ourselves that money that we have already spent was well spent.

Who I'd tell to try it (and who I wouldn't)

Maybe worth a try if:

• You've ruled out the medical with an actual doctor

• Your issue is more flatness and brain noise than pain or specific physical symptoms

• You're patient and can commit to 8-12 weeks

• You have the money and won't resent it if the money is gone

Please don't try it if:

• You're pregnant, trying, or breastfeeding

• On any medication whatsoever. Herbal extracts interact with things, and ginkgo and blood thinners is one not to be freestyling with

• You have a hormone-sensitive condition

• You're experiencing pain, bleeding or a sudden change - that's a conversation with a doctor, not a supplement

• You're hoping it will fix a relationship problem. It won't. I promise. Nothing in a bottle is going to make someone do the dishes.

My actual verdict

7 out of 10 with an asterisk the size of my head.

Did it help? I think so, mildly, probably. Will I buy it again? I did. Am I going to tell you it changed my life? No. Will I tell you to try it before you've had your iron and thyroid checked? Absolutely not.

It's a small lever, and sometimes you need something to pull.

Quick answers to questions you've emailed me

"How long before you noticed anything?" ~3 weeks. Some people report sooner, some never."

Any side effects?" Mild stomach grumble on an empty stomach. That's me. Your mileage may vary and your body is not my body.

"Is it safe with the pill?" I'm not qualified to answer that and neither is this blog. Ask a pharmacist, they're free, clever, and up for a question like that.

"Would you take it for ever?" Nope. I'm going to finish this round and see what happens and report back, assuming I haven't died of embarrassment from this post.