Ghanaian Students Know the Names of Sexual Enhancers, But Not the Facts

Ask a university student in Ghana about sexual enhancers or sex toys, and you will likely get an answer. Ask the same student where that answer came from, and the picture becomes far more troubling. A new qualitative study published in Discover Social Science and Health suggests that while awareness of sexual wellness products is rising rapidly among young Ghanaians, genuine, evidence-based knowledge remains scarce, leaving most students to navigate a landscape of TikTok clips, peer gossip, and cultural silence. The research, led by Isaac Nyarko Kwakye of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development, offers one of the most detailed portraits to date of how young adults in a conservative African setting form beliefs about products that global markets are aggressively pushing into their feeds.

The study involved 45 undergraduate students drawn from three institutions: the University of Environment and Sustainable Development in Somanya, the University of Energy and Natural Resources in Sunyani, and West End University College in Accra. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 35 and included 27 men and 18 women across all academic levels. Through semi-structured, one-on-one interviews conducted in private campus settings, the researchers explored what students knew about sexual enhancers, substances such as sildenafil citrate and herbal stimulants marketed to boost libido or stamina, and sex toys, including vibrators, dildos, and lubricants designed for solo or partnered pleasure. The team then applied thematic analysis, following the six-phase framework of Braun and Clarke, to distill the interviews into coherent patterns.

What sets this study apart methodologically is its insistence on distinguishing the epistemic basis of every claim. Rather than treating all student opinions as equal, the researchers coded each account according to whether it stemmed from direct personal experience, observation of peers or partners, or pure media-driven speculation. The results were revealing: 15 participants spoke from direct experience, 18 relied primarily on peer observation, and 12 offered largely speculative accounts built on social media narratives and general assumptions. This tripartite classification allowed the team to weigh the evidentiary value of each perception and to trace how knowledge, or the lack of it, shaped attitudes.

The analysis revealed that participants occupied positions along a continuum stretching from surface-level awareness to functionally grounded knowledge. Those with personal or close-peer experience described the products with precision, understanding both their purpose and their risks. One participant with direct experience defined sexual enhancers as products used to improve performance or satisfaction, and sex toys as objects designed to increase pleasure. Others, whose knowledge came from watching friends, offered moderately informed but secondhand accounts. At the far end of the continuum sat students who had heard the names of these products but little else. One participant admitted to knowing only that dildos and vibrators existed, having heard about them from other people, while another described them vaguely as self-stimulants to arouse you.

Crucially, the study documented a transitional process: some students actively converted raw awareness into real knowledge. One participant recounted first hearing about the products on TikTok, then looking up information independently until they understood what the products do, the risks involved, and the correct way to use them, noting that their perception changed as they learned more. But the researchers found that this transition was frequently blocked. Students with high awareness but no access to credible information remained stuck at the speculative end, guessing in a vacuum. As one participant put it, nobody teaches these things formally, so you just guess. The finding aligns with the Information-Motivation-Behavioural Skills model that guided the study, which frames health behavior as a staged progression from information to motivation to skills, a progression that cultural taboos can interrupt or distort.

Moral and cultural disapproval emerged as a powerful attitudinal filter that operated largely independently of knowledge level. Students with minimal understanding were just as likely to condemn the products as those with deeper knowledge, suggesting that perceptions are shaped more by cultural frameworks than by evidence. Several participants framed sex toys as corrupting influences on youth or as threats to self-control, while others worried about infections and dependency. Yet the study also recorded a fascinating cultural nuance: herbal sexual enhancers enjoyed a degree of historical legitimacy, with one participant noting that their forefathers used herbal enhancers, whereas sex toys were broadly rejected as foreign and culturally incompatible. This split reveals how tradition can tolerate some forms of enhancement while proscribing others outright.

Perceived effects cut in both directions. On the positive side, students associated the products with improved intimacy, reduced sexual anxiety, greater confidence, and better understanding of one’s own body, benefits that echo international research linking sexual aids to enhanced communication and satisfaction between partners. On the negative side, fears of side effects, injuries, erectile dysfunction, infections from poor hygiene, and psychological dependence featured prominently, though the researchers caution that most of these risk accounts came from peer narratives or media stories rather than direct experience, which may have amplified fears beyond actual clinical risk. The concern about dependency, in particular, appeared shaped more by moral narratives about addiction than by clinical evidence.

Beneath these perceptions lay a dense web of social and psychological drivers. Peer pressure and social media trends normalized experimentation, and in some cases enforced it: one participant described how being called a one-minute man by a girlfriend bruises the ego and pushes men toward enhancers. Curiosity was the most frequently cited motivator, often intertwined with self-esteem and performance anxiety. Participants described wanting to keep partners happy, to stay on top of their game, or simply to spice up a relationship. Meanwhile, the information vacuum was stark. Most students reported relying on social media and peer discussions rather than structured education, and one noted that the only sexual health education they had received covered teenage pregnancy and nothing else. Even university lecturers, participants said, rarely addressed these topics.

The students themselves proposed a remedy: workshops and seminars led by health professionals, anonymous question-and-answer sessions, open forums free of judgment, and the integration of sexual health topics, including the safe use of enhancers and toys, into university curricula. The researchers endorse these recommendations, arguing that interventions must not assume awareness equals knowledge, and must instead move students deliberately along the pathway from awareness to knowledge to informed perception, using evidence-based content and culturally sensitive framing. They also call for confidential counseling services within university health units. The study’s authors acknowledge limitations, including the convenience sample and the sensitivity of the topic, which may have led some participants to withhold views. Still, the central message is difficult to ignore: in a digital era where sexual wellness products are one click away, silence is no longer a neutral policy. Universities that fail to fill the information gap are leaving students to learn from algorithms, advertisers, and rumor, a curriculum nobody designed and nobody vetted.

Subject of Research: University students' perceptions of sexual enhancers and sex toys in Ghana

Article Title: The perception of sexual enhancers and sex toys among university students in Ghana

Article References: Kwakye, I. N., Oware, E. O., Adom-Fynn, D., Roberts, C. O., Antwi, A. O., Agyei, S. D., Vondee, S. E., Opoku-Mensah, K., & Kugbey, N. (2026). The perception of sexual enhancers and sex toys among university students in Ghana. Discover Social Science and Health, 6(1), Article 100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44155-026-00431-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44155-026-00431-5

Keywords: sexual health, sex toys, sexual enhancers, Ghana, university students, qualitative research, thematic analysis, social media, cultural stigma, sexuality education, peer influence, public health