The landscape of sexual wellness is undergoing significant transformation as it moves beyond protection and pleasure, becoming an integral part of consumers’ well-being routines. Consumers are recognizing intimate wellness’s impact on overall health, with studies showing stark connections between sexual and mental, heart and even brain health, reiterating that sexual wellness has a place in wider health conversations.
Sexual health has been a growing category for the better part of a decade, but is its momentum fading? Despite increasing investment, the sexual wellness space still faces significant challenges—shifting stagnant consumer behavior and advertising censorship among them. The market remains stable at over $2.3bn in 2024 and is projected to expand another 8% through 2029 as retailers and brands continue to invest in the category, with trends like hormone and fertility health expected to play a major role in innovation and engagement.
Market struggles will be short-lived as sexual wellness attracts consumers alongside the rise of self-care, body positivity, and sexual empowerment.
Rebecca Watters, Associate Director, Household & Health
For the purposes of this Report, Mintel defines the OTC (over the counter) contraceptives and sexual health market as follows:
The market size only covers OTC purchases, so products provided for free, such as condoms given out at a healthcare clinic or pregnancy tests given by a healthcare professional are not included.
Other methods of contraception, such as sterilization (tubal ligation, vasectomy), prescription hormonal contraceptives (pill, patch, injection, implant, contraceptive ring), diaphragm, IUD, etc, may be discussed in this Report, but are not included in the market size.
The pregnancy and ovulation test kit market only covers at home urine tests. Blood tests are not included nor are fertility monitoring devices.
Supplemental brand data on sexual enhancement devices (eg personal massagers, vibrators) are included in this Report, but are excluded from the market size.
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