Best Sex Toys and Intimate Wellness Products in 2026

For most people, yes, when the material is body-safe and the item is kept clean. Research summarized by the International Society for Sexual Medicine reports that vibrator use is common among adults surveyed in the United States — roughly half of women and over 40% of men in the underlying 2009 national surveys — and that it is associated with better scores across several domains of sexual function. The risks that do exist are specific and avoidable: porous materials that cannot be cleaned, infection from a shared or dirty item, irritation from soap residue or a rough seam, and objects lost in the rectum because they had no flared base. Soreness that lasts, bleeding or numbness means stop and see a clinician.

Medical-grade silicone, borosilicate glass and polished stainless steel are the three dependable choices. All are non-porous, so they can be cleaned properly, and none relies on plasticizers to stay soft. Jelly, soft PVC, TPE and TPR are the ones to treat with caution: they are porous, cannot be fully sanitized, and softeners including phthalates have been found in products of this type since the Danish EPA survey in 2006. If you use one, keep it to a single user, cover it with a condom, and replace it once the surface changes.

Better not to. Makers of silicone toys generally warn that silicone lubricant can react with the surface and leave it tacky, pitted or discolored, and that damage does not reverse. Water-based lubricant is the safe default: it works with every toy material and with latex condoms and rinses off without residue, at the cost of drying out and needing a top-up. If you want silicone lubricant for its staying power, use it with glass, steel or a condom-covered toy, or patch-test on the base of a silicone item and check it a day later.

Wash after every use: warm water, a mild unscented soap, a thorough rinse, then a lint-free cloth to dry. Non-motorized solid silicone, glass and steel tolerate boiling or stronger disinfection; anything with a motor, battery or seam does not, because water gets in and stays in. Manufacturer instructions come first where they differ. Store items apart from each other in cloth bags or their own cases, take batteries out of anything going unused for months, and replace any item whose surface has cracked, split or turned permanently tacky.

Yes. The NHS states that sharing toys can pass on infections including chlamydia, syphilis and herpes, and Planned Parenthood lists gonorrhea and HPV alongside them. Body fluids left on the surface are the route, and porous materials make it worse because washing does not reach into the pores. The standard advice is to wash between uses and put a new condom on the toy each time a different person uses it, changing it again before the toy moves from the anus to the vagina or mouth. If you share regularly with a new partner, routine sexual health screening protects you better than any cleaning routine.

They are. Every one comes from someone who bought the product, used it, and described how it held up over weeks: how loud the motor was, how the surface aged, whether the item survived cleaning. We keep critical reviews alongside positive ones, because a product that disappoints half its buyers is information worth having. User experience does not replace what is known about materials and hygiene, which we weigh separately, and personal details are never published with a review.