Aneros has become synonymous with anal pleasure in the LGBTQ+ community—but that was never its intention.
“It actually started from a urological health place,” says Aneros’ Forrest Andrews. “Prostate massage dates back millenia, to the tantra and the Tao. But it wasn’t really until the 1900s when Western medicine started using prostate massage for treating prostatitis. And it became essentially the gold standard for treating prostatitis.”
Prostatitis, for those lucky enough to not suffer from it, is the most common urinary tract problem for men under 50, resulting in a million visits for healthcare providers each year. Before Aneros, treatment typically included having one’s prostate massaged by a general practitioner, prior to the advent of antibiotics for it in the 1960s. The rise in holistic health practices in the ‘80s and ‘90s, however, saw massage return to favor, with the world’s first hands-free, self-powered prostate massager, patented in 1996.
READ: Great Goods: The Must-Have Sex Products for the Holidays
Since then, its use for sexual pleasure has quickly become the dominant narrative around it, even as millions of men continue using it for its health benefits. Hard to ignore the sexual aspect of it when many men reported a startling side effect from its use: intense, powerful orgasms.
But something else was happening, as well. “Men were reporting having a very powerful orgasm that began in the pelvis that was not ejaculatory, that radiated over the entire body,” Andrews says. “Essentially, a whole body orgasm was happening as a result of this prostate massage device. And over time, these reports accumulated to an extent that the owner of the company had another way to market this product.
“And with that, the Aneros brand is born.”
Andrews himself was one of those men, who found that Aneros both helped his chronic prostatitis and enabled full-body orgasms. The latter is what drove him to reach out to the company, wondering just what was happening. Fast forward a few years, and he made the leap from customer to volunteer product tester to product development manager.
READ: Fort Troff Is the ‘Proudly Gay, Hardcore, and Kinky’ Sex Toy Company You Love
Because Aneros helps strengthen the pelvic floor, it provides a host of health benefits. (In addition to the other big benefit.)
“Help with erectile dysfunction is one. Incontinence is another. Premature ejaculation is another,” Andrew says, pointing to the company’s 58,000-member strong forum, where men come to share anecdotal evidence about what Aneros has done for them. Plus, “Guys become proficient with the super O, the non-ejaculatory orgasm. And these guys can have them on demand. It’s a simple matter of channeling the energy of arousal into the climax they desire. I can speak to that one myself, because I was able to do that about two or four years into my practice.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring shutdown saw a definite uptick in sales, and Andrews is quick to point out that men, suddenly with more time on their hands, were able to plunge deep into the full possibilities of the device.
“Men who are engaged in trying to find a new sexual experience, a new type of fulfillment, that’s something that usually takes time and practice to acquire,” he says. “The pandemic afforded people more time to themselves in the privacy of their homes to achieve this kind of orgasm.” But, he adds, “With most people it’s something that takes a little bit of practice and tuning.”
One can learn more about what that practice entails on the forum boards, but what Andrews is describing is a prostate-centered orgasm that doesn’t involve penile contact.
Andrews advises men to think of Aneros as a “tantric training wheel.”
“The idea is, over a period of time, the Aneros can teach you how to have these orgasms without the Aneros,” he says. “One can be so familiar with these orgasms that you can have them with a variety of stimuli.”
He describes the process as similar to driving to a new location. “You’re looking down at your map to get there the first time,” he says. “But over a period of time you don’t have to look at it anymore.You know that location, you know how to go there. Again this is an advanced user. I’m not saying every guy gets that immediately. But this is part of the thing that makes the Aneros so powerful.”
Stronger erections, more powerful ejaculations, better prostate health and a training wheel for orgasms on demand? Aneros is more than just a product; it’s practically a sexual wellness movement.
