The tremendous success of Viagra created a market for erectile dysfunction treatment: Cialis and Levitra have since come along, with more, similar treatments possibly to come. Viagra's success also created another niche market: intimacy enhancers. It's a good bet that Viagra was never intended to provide inspiration for an enhancement niche, but inspire it did, and today an entire market, filled with dozens if not hundreds of products, exists as a result.

Interestingly enough, intimacy enhancers certainly owe their existence to a misuse of Viagra. There were scores of men, millions of them, who were using Viagra as an aphrodisiac. The thinking went, apparently, that if Viagra treated erectile problems it must work as a male intimacy enhancer additionally. So men, in large numbers, turned to Viagra for enhancement. This sort of underground usage of Viagra became a phenomenon: it also indicated the presence of a market -- for male enhancement at the least and perhaps for all types of enhancers -- and someone somewhere, prudently, was watching and listening.

The early enhancers were across the board produced and marketed in the same way: they were specifically made for enhanced intimacy and not for the treatment of enhancement dysfunction; and they were nonprescription. Enhancers were sold exclusively through mail order, and became a considerable presence on the Internet as the Internet developed and grew. A number of the nonprescription enhancers would probably claim themselves as the "first" enhancer on the scene. MagnaRX may hold the distinction; perhaps not. MagnaRX is certainly one of the older of the enhancers being sold today.

Early versions of intimacy enhancers were just about universally taken in some sort of oral form: capsules often. As time passed, however, topical enhancers were introduced, and today the topical enhancers seem to be the most popular enhancers used. The enhancement market has also expanded: beginning enhancers were for males only. There are enhancers now that are exclusive to women, though the majority of product continues to be made for men.

The marketing presence for enhancers has grown, to the point now where the enhancer Orexis has cable and late night television commercials. But most marketing for enhancers takes place online, with the occasional bit of marketing happening in the print media. The almost overwhelming television marketing presence of the prescription erectile dysfunction treatments raises some question about why nonprescription intimacy enhancers don't have more of a television presence. Perhaps it's because of the cost of television advertising, or perhaps it's because commercial enhancers aren't oversight regulated, or perhaps it's due to something else altogether.

Like most everything else, the cost of enhancers has achieved a common baseline over time: nonprescription enhancers now typically cost between $49 and $59 for what is generally considered to be a month-long supply.