Even as Americans have become less permissive about sex in recent years, anal sex products are going mainstream and rolling out to your local drugstore.
Future Method, the sexual wellness brand created by anal surgeon Evan Goldstein, owner of Manhattan medical practice Bespoke Surgical, is launching three products—the $39.99 2-Piece Silicone Anal Beginner Dilator Set, $26.99 2-Pack Single-Use Anal Douche Kit and $26.99 Reusable Anal Douche Kit—at more than 800 CVS stores nationwide in sexual wellness sections. The dilator set was designed specifically for CVS as an approachable entry point into the category. The CVS launch follows Future Method’s recent entrance onto Walmart Marketplace, another sign that products once relegated to specialty sexual wellness channels are moving mainstream.
CVS wanted Future Method across its approximately 9,000-store fleet in the United States, but Goldstein opted for a targeted presence at first, prioritizing college towns and urban centers where he felt demand would be highest and giving the emerging brand a more manageable scope as it tests its products at a major retailer. That doesn’t mean anal sex isn’t a widespread activity in the country.
Bedbible data published by Statista show the share of Americans who reported having tried anal sex increased in 2022 from 2020 and 2021, continuing a longer-term upward trend dating to 2001. A 2017 study by researchers at Indiana University and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, based on a nationally representative 2015 survey of American adults, found 43% of men reported having insertive anal sex in their lifetimes and 37% of women reported having receptive anal sex.
Anal sex has recently entered the zeitgeist, too, with the breakout success of “Heated Rivalry,” the gay hockey romance whose explicit sex scenes became a major part of the conversation surrounding the show. Future Method products will be on drugstore shelves if anyone is inspired by “Heated Rivalry’s” second season, slated for next spring.
The partnership marks an evolution of sexual wellness’s expansion into mass retail, which accelerated during the pandemic as brands like Dame, Bloomi, Cake and Jems joined legacy players like Durex on shelves before losing momentum in recent years amid consumer caution, competition from e-tailers, where purchases can be discreet, merchandising challenges and the difficulty of building awareness for young, unproven brands. Now, retailers such as CVS are making bets on more niche solutions like those offered by Future Method.
Large pharmacy chains like CVS occupy a pivotal position in sexual health, serving as healthcare touchpoints for consumers picking up prescriptions for PrEP, medication used to prevent HIV, and DoxyPEP, an antibiotic regimen used to prevent certain sexually transmitted infections, as well as other sexual wellness products. Yet traditional retail layouts place enemas, like Future Method’s douches, in the constipation aisle, separate from lubricants and condoms in sexual wellness.
With CVS, Future Method is exploring cross-aisle placement and pharmacist education. “We’re working with them to try to train the pharmacists,” says Goldstein. “People are going there for PrEP, they’re going there for DoxyPEP, [pharmacists] should really have the wherewithal to be like, ‘What are you using to clean out, and are you using stuff with preservatives because that is a problem.’”
Mass retail comes with constraints, particularly for brands tackling stigmatized categories. Goldstein is known for the bold yet informative content he shares on Future Method’s social media channels and Science of Sex digital education hub, but he understands the CVS shelf isn’t the place to be his most outspoken about anal sex. Emphasizing risk reduction rather than pleasure helps Future Method bridge clinical healthcare and commercial wellness.
“It’s how it’s positioned,” says Goldstein. “I wouldn’t even talk about anal in this space. I would just talk about risk reduction for sexual practices.”
Clinical science is at the core of Future Method’s value proposition. Goldstein explains that some traditional liquid enemas and cleansing douches contain preservatives or have an osmolality that can disrupt the rectal mucosal lining, potentially increasing vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections. Future Method instead uses powder-based, isotonic formulations that are reconstituted with tap water, eliminating the need for synthetic preservatives.
Butt care is getting bucks these days. Future Method has attracted investment itself, including an undisclosed investment from Reckitt’s then-venture arm Access VC in 2022 after Goldstein initially raised about $3 million primarily from friends and family. The brand has just extended its direct-to-consumer distribution beyond the U.S. to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union.
Comedian Pete Davidson participated in hemorrhoid care brand Norms’ $1.5 million seed funding round through his venture studio Cardiff Giant last year. Both Norms and telehealth company Bummed launched last year to tackle anorectal health from a consumer and medical standpoint, respectively.
In the U.K., butt care brand Wype raised roughly $1.4 million in seed funding in an oversubscribed round last year, and scientist-founded sexual wellness startup Polari Group raised over $500,000 in a seed round in 2024 and another $454,000 last year in a Kickstarter campaign to create its A-Ball, a douching alternative. Earlier this year, Hingham Growth Partners invested in anal care brand Asset.
