Rugiet Ready vs. BlueChew Gold: Is Four Ingredients Really Better Than Three?

If you’re a man in the United States, odds are you’ve seen advertisements for both Rugiet and BlueChew.

BlueChew has been around for a good long while. Then Rugiet came along with a three-ingredient erectile dysfunction medication called Rugiet Ready. More recently, BlueChew introduced BlueChew Gold, a four-ingredient formulation.

Which leaves men wondering: Is four ingredients better than three?

Well, the answer is a little more interesting than the advertisements would have you believe.

First, Forget About the Brand Names

Rugiet Ready contains three active pharmaceutical ingredients:

• Sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra)
• Tadalafil (the active ingredient in Cialis)
• Apomorphine

BlueChew Gold contains four:

• Sildenafil
• Tadalafil
• Apomorphine
• Oxytocin

Notice anything?

Three of the four ingredients are exactly the same.

So instead of comparing Rugiet Ready to BlueChew Gold, let’s ask a much simpler question:

What does adding oxytocin to sildenafil, tadalafil, and apomorphine actually accomplish?

That’s really what this comparison comes down to, assuming we’re setting aside differences in dosages and formulations.

But before we get into the science, there’s something else worth understanding.

None of these ingredients belongs to Rugiet or BlueChew. They’re all available as generic active pharmaceutical ingredients. Neither company invented sildenafil, tadalafil, apomorphine, or oxytocin.

These companies spend enormous amounts of money advertising their products, often leaving consumers with the impression that they’ve developed something fundamentally different from their competitors.

But the active ingredients aren’t exclusive.

In fact, Shameless Care, the website you’re reading right now, offers Shameless Trio⁠ with the same three active ingredients as Rugiet Ready. We also offer Shameless Quad⁠, containing the same four active ingredients as BlueChew Gold.

Ours are less expensive, and we don’t have subscriptions.

Because, frankly, I’m not sure anybody other than investors in subscription companies actually likes subscriptions.

Now, back to the science.

What Does Apomorphine Do?

We’ve already written an extensive article about apomorphine and its use in erectile dysfunction⁠, so I’m not going to repeat all of that here.

The short explanation is that sildenafil and tadalafil primarily work by improving blood flow necessary for erections, while apomorphine stimulates dopamine receptors in the brain that are involved in erectile responses.

It’s an interesting medication with a long history. Sublingual apomorphine was even approved for erectile dysfunction in parts of Europe more than two decades ago, although it never received FDA approval for that indication in the United States.

But apomorphine isn’t what separates Rugiet Ready from BlueChew Gold.

Both contain it.

The difference is oxytocin.

What Is Oxytocin, and What Does It Actually Do?

Oxytocin is a peptide hormone that your body produces naturally.

You’ve probably heard it described as the “cuddle hormone” or the “love hormone.”

Those nicknames are a little simplistic, but they aren’t entirely unreasonable.

Oxytocin plays a role in childbirth, lactation, social bonding, and various aspects of human interaction.

You can also take oxytocin exogenously. That’s a scientific way of saying you’re introducing it from outside the body rather than relying on what your body naturally produces.

We’ve written a separate article about oxytocin and intimacy⁠ if you want to explore the topic further.

Researchers have spent decades studying what happens when people are given oxytocin, and some of the findings are genuinely fascinating.

For example, a 2009 randomized, placebo-controlled study published in ⁠Biological Psychiatry⁠ examined 47 heterosexual couples who were instructed to discuss a source of conflict in their relationship.

Participants received either intranasal oxytocin or a placebo.

Researchers found that oxytocin increased positive communication relative to negative communication and reduced cortisol levels after the disagreement.

In other words, oxytocin appeared to help couples communicate a little more positively during an argument.

That’s pretty interesting.

Another study published in 2013⁠ found that men in romantic relationships who received intranasal oxytocin showed increased activity in reward-related brain regions when viewing photographs of their partners. The researchers also found changes in attractiveness ratings favoring their partners.

Oxytocin wasn’t simply making every woman more attractive. The effect was specific to their existing romantic partners.

And there are other studies looking at interpersonal distance, social attention, and how people behave around someone they’re attracted to.

But here’s what I think is important.

The effects researchers observe are generally much subtler and more context-dependent than the advertising might lead you to believe.

Oxytocin doesn’t simply turn everyone into a more affectionate, sexually adventurous, or romantically engaged version of themselves.

It might influence how people respond to social interactions. It might change how rewarding they perceive certain relationships to be.

That’s interesting. That’s potentially beneficial.

But we’re talking about subtle behavioral changes, not a magic love potion.

And there’s another reason to be cautious about translating these findings into promises about erectile dysfunction medication.

Most of the research I just described involved oxytocin administered through the nose.

BlueChew Gold delivers it through the mouth.

That distinction matters enormously.

The Problem With Sublingual Oxytocin

Sublingual means under the tongue.

BlueChew Gold is designed to dissolve in your mouth, where its ingredients are intended to be absorbed through the oral tissues.

But not every medication is absorbed equally well this way.

And oxytocin has a particularly interesting problem.

Its sublingual bioavailability may be extraordinarily low.

Bioavailability describes how much of a medication reaches your bloodstream intact.

In a 1995 study published in the ⁠Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology⁠, researchers investigated the bioavailability of oxytocin administered under the tongues of male volunteers.

The results?

Between 0.007% and 0.07%.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Not 7%.

Not even 0.7%.

As little as seven-thousandths of one percent.

At the upper end of that range, approximately 99.93% of the administered dose did not reach the bloodstream intact.

That’s extraordinarily poor absorption.

Now, that study involved a particular oxytocin formulation and method of administration. We cannot automatically assume that every compounded sublingual medication will produce identical results.

But it certainly raises an important question.

If almost none of the oxytocin reaches your bloodstream, how much of an effect should you realistically expect?

Interestingly, more recent research makes that question considerably more complicated.

But Wait. Oral Oxytocin Might Actually Do Something.

In a 2022 randomized study published in ⁠Psychoneuroendocrinology⁠, researchers administered oxytocin orally to healthy men.

They measured how participants responded to emotional faces and other visual stimuli using an eye-tracking experiment.

The researchers found measurable changes in attention processing and anxiety-related responses, with some effects resembling those previously observed following intranasal oxytocin administration.

Another 2022 study published in ⁠Frontiers in Neuroscience⁠ administered oxytocin using medicated lollipops.

Yes, actual lollipops containing oxytocin.

The researchers found changes in attention processing and increased blood oxytocin concentrations. Some effects were similar to those observed with intranasal administration, even though blood concentrations rose less with the oral-mucosal route.

That’s fascinating.

And it suggests that extremely low systemic bioavailability doesn’t necessarily mean that oxytocin administered through the mouth has no physiological effect whatsoever.

However, these experiments weren’t measuring erection quality, sexual satisfaction, or performance in the bedroom.

They were measuring things like visual attention and anxiety.

They also weren’t testing BlueChew Gold or its specific compounded formulation.

So the research provides evidence that orally administered oxytocin can do something.

It does not establish that adding oxytocin to an erectile dysfunction medication makes the medication better.

Those are two very different conclusions.

Does Oxytocin Actually Improve Sexual Performance?

This is where things become particularly interesting.

In a 2008 double-blind, placebo-controlled study⁠, researchers gave 10 healthy men intranasal oxytocin or placebo before measuring sexual responses during erotic stimulation and masturbation.

The researchers found increased blood oxytocin levels and changes in certain physiological markers.

But when they measured sexual arousal, orgasm, and the period following orgasm using a sexual experience questionnaire, they found no significant improvement in those outcomes.

Eight of the ten participants correctly identified when they had received oxytocin rather than placebo, suggesting they could perceive some difference.

But perceiving a difference isn’t necessarily the same thing as having better sex.

Now, this was a very small study. Ten men are not enough to settle the question.

And it used intranasal oxytocin, not the sublingual medication found in BlueChew Gold.

Nevertheless, it illustrates something I think gets lost in the advertising.

A medication can have measurable physiological effects without necessarily producing the sexual benefits consumers expect.

Those aren’t the same thing.

So Is BlueChew Gold Better Than Rugiet Ready?

If I had to make a prediction, I would wager that most men couldn’t tell the difference between a formulation containing sildenafil, tadalafil, and apomorphine and one that also contains oxytocin, assuming the dosages of the other three ingredients were identical.

That’s my prediction, not the conclusion of a clinical trial.

Oxytocin is genuinely interesting, and there is research suggesting it can influence certain aspects of human intimacy and social interaction. But the effects are generally subtle, and there’s an enormous difference between demonstrating a measurable effect in a laboratory and improving someone’s actual sexual experience.

I haven’t seen convincing head-to-head clinical evidence establishing that adding oxytocin to sildenafil, tadalafil, and apomorphine produces better sexual outcomes than the same three medications without it.

And remember, Rugiet Ready and BlueChew Gold don’t necessarily contain identical dosages of their shared ingredients. Those differences may matter considerably more than whether oxytocin is included.

More ingredients don’t automatically make a better medication.

Could oxytocin provide an additional benefit? Absolutely. But I suspect that for most men, the difference would be considerably smaller than the advertising suggests.

One More Thing: Neither Company Invented These Medications

Something that bothers me about the modern erectile dysfunction industry is how much marketing is designed to convince consumers that one company’s formulation is fundamentally different from another’s.

The actual ingredients are often exactly the same.

Sildenafil is sildenafil. Tadalafil is tadalafil. Apomorphine is apomorphine. Oxytocin is oxytocin.

Of course, that doesn’t mean every formulation is identical. Doses, inactive ingredients, manufacturing quality, and delivery methods can matter.

And these compounded combinations aren’t FDA-approved finished drug products. They require individualized medical evaluation, particularly because combining sildenafil and tadalafil can increase adverse effects and is inappropriate for some patients. Neither should be used with nitrate medications.

But no amount of branding changes the underlying active pharmaceutical ingredients.

I don’t think erectile dysfunction medications need to be expensive. And I certainly don’t think men should be forced into recurring billing arrangements to purchase them.

But most importantly, I think people deserve accurate information about what they’re buying.

The difference in active ingredients between Rugiet Ready and BlueChew Gold is one additional ingredient: oxytocin.

Whether that fourth ingredient makes a meaningful difference in your sexual experience is a much more complicated scientific question.

And at least for now, I don’t think the evidence supports the confidence of the advertisements.

Research Referenced

1. Bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of sublingual oxytocin in male volunteers⁠ (1995). Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. Reported extremely low and variable sublingual bioavailability.
2. Intranasal oxytocin increases positive communication and reduces cortisol levels during couple conflict⁠ (2009). Biological Psychiatry. Randomized study involving 47 couples.
3. Oxytocin enhances brain reward system responses in men viewing the face of their female partner⁠ (2013). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Found partner-specific effects on attraction and brain reward responses.
4. Oral administration of oxytocin and social attention⁠ (2022). Psychoneuroendocrinology. Examined attention-related and anxiety-related responses following oral oxytocin administration.
5. Oro-mucosal administration of oxytocin using medicated lollipops⁠ (2022). Frontiers in Neuroscience. Found physiological and attention-related effects following oral-mucosal administration.
6. The acute effects of intranasal oxytocin administration on endocrine and sexual function in males⁠ (2008). Psychoneuroendocrinology. Small placebo-controlled study finding physiological changes without significant improvements in measured sexual experience.

Additional Shameless Care Reading

• Apomorphine: From Century-Old Drug to Cutting-Edge ED Therapy⁠
• Oxytocin for Intimacy⁠