China boom in wives slipping impotence pills to husbands

China is reporting a boom in impotence pills as fed up wives plot to bring straying husbands back into line.

Chinese women are putting impotency drugs into their husbands’ hot drinks.

If you want to bring your straying husband back into line and ensure he remains faithful, there is a drug for that.

In fact the market for synthetic female hormones capable of rendering a man physically incapable of infidelity is booming in China.

Promoted as a way to control the urges of an unfaithful husband, diethylstilboestrol, a synthetic version of oestrogen, is guaranteed by purveyors online to render the taker impotent. It works by blocking the production of testosterone and has been used to “chemically castrate” sex offenders.

Women are slipping the impotence drug into their husbands' drinks. Picture: iStock.

Some sellers recommend slipping it into your husband’s porridge, milk or drinking water. Online reviews include many apparently satisfied buyers. It comes in liquid form and costs about $18 for 50ml.

Infidelity is common in China, especially among rich or powerful men, and, while the law allows women to divorce unfaithful husbands, many prefer to find a way to maintain their marriage, which is where the impotence-inducing drug has found a lucrative market.

The owner of an online shop selling the hormone told Xiaoxiang Morning News, a state-owned newspaper, there had been a run on the pills. “Too many people wanted to buy it,” he said.

One satisfied customer wrote on Chinese social media: “The medicine took effect just two weeks after I started feeding it to my husband. Now he basically stays at home, behaving himself.”

The paper quoted a pharmacist who said the drug had once been prescribed to regulate menstruation but was now recognised as a carcinogen.

British mathematical genius, codebreaker and father of computing Alan Turing.

Before his suicide in 1954, a court ordered the British scientist Alan Turing to take it, and it has been linked to depression. Doctors also used to prescribe it to teenage patients to help control acne, and it is still used to treat prostate cancer.

The pharmacist noted that it was being phased out because of severe side effects, and it has been banned as an animal food supplement to boost growth. After the news coverage many online stores began removing the product, fearing a crackdown, but it is still available.

Yao Zhidou, a Beijing lawyer, noted that a wife who administered a drug to her husband without his consent could be held criminally responsible if it caused harm. State media noted that online shops could be prosecuted and closed if they did not have the appropriate medical sales licences.

The Times