BlueChew pills contain one of three active ingredients: sildenafil, tadalafil, or vardenafil. These are the same drugs found in brand-name erectile dysfunction medications like Viagra (sildenafil), Cialis (tadalafil), and Levitra (vardenafil), but compounded into chewable tablets at specific dosage strengths rather than traditional swallowable pills.
The Three Active Ingredients
When you sign up for BlueChew, a provider prescribes one of three options based on your health profile and preferences. Each contains a single active pharmaceutical ingredient:
- Sildenafil (the Viagra ingredient), available in 30 mg and 45 mg chewable tablets
- Tadalafil (the Cialis ingredient), available in 6 mg and 9 mg chewable tablets
- Vardenafil (the Levitra ingredient), available in 8 mg tablets
You’ll notice these dosages differ from what you’d see at a regular pharmacy. Standard sildenafil tablets come in 25, 50, and 100 mg. Standard tadalafil comes in 5 and 20 mg. The lower milligram amounts in BlueChew reflect the chewable format, which can deliver the drug into the bloodstream more efficiently than a pill you swallow whole.
How These Ingredients Work
All three ingredients belong to the same drug class. They block an enzyme that naturally breaks down a chemical messenger called cGMP in blood vessel walls. When that messenger accumulates instead of being broken down, the smooth muscle lining blood vessels relaxes and widens, allowing more blood to flow through. In the context of an erection, this means blood flows more easily into the penis when you’re sexually aroused. The drugs don’t create arousal on their own; they amplify the body’s existing response to it.
The enzyme these drugs target is concentrated in a few specific tissues: the erectile tissue of the penis, blood vessel walls throughout the body, the lungs, and the retina. That distribution explains both why the drugs work for erections and why they can cause side effects like flushing, headaches, or temporary visual changes.
Why The Chewable Format Matters
The chewable design isn’t just about convenience. When you swallow a standard pill, it travels to your stomach, dissolves, passes into the small intestine, gets absorbed into the bloodstream, and then passes through the liver before reaching the rest of your body. The liver breaks down a significant portion of the drug before it ever gets to work. With sildenafil, roughly 70% of an oral dose is lost to this “first-pass” effect.
Chewing a tablet and letting it dissolve in your mouth allows some of the drug to absorb through the lining of your mouth directly into the bloodstream, partially bypassing the liver. Research on sublingual (under-the-tongue) sildenafil found that onset time was roughly cut in half compared to swallowing a standard tablet: about 29 minutes versus 63 minutes in a small Italian study of six men. This faster absorption is also why BlueChew’s milligram amounts are lower than traditional pills. Less drug is wasted, so you need less to get the same effect. A high-fat meal can further delay a swallowed pill’s onset, but absorption through the mouth is less affected by what you’ve eaten.
Differences Between the Three Options
The practical difference between sildenafil, tadalafil, and vardenafil comes down to timing. Sildenafil and vardenafil are shorter-acting, typically lasting four to six hours. You take them roughly 30 to 60 minutes before sexual activity. Tadalafil lasts much longer, up to 36 hours, which is why Cialis earned the nickname “the weekend pill.” That longer window means less pressure to time the dose precisely, but it also means the drug stays in your system longer, which matters if you take other medications.
Compounded, Not FDA-Approved
One important distinction: BlueChew tablets are compounded medications, not FDA-approved products. A compounding pharmacy mixes the active ingredient into the chewable tablet form. The FDA does not review or approve compounded drugs the way it does brand-name or generic medications. In September 2025, the FDA issued a warning letter to BlueChew’s parent company, Dermacare LLC, stating that claims implying these products are the same as FDA-approved drugs are “false or misleading.” The active ingredients themselves (sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil) are well-studied and FDA-approved in their brand-name forms, but the specific chewable formulations BlueChew sells have not gone through the FDA approval process.
Drug Interactions to Know About
Because all three ingredients work by relaxing blood vessels, they can cause dangerous drops in blood pressure when combined with other drugs that do the same thing. The most critical interaction is with nitrate medications, commonly prescribed for chest pain. These include nitroglycerin, isosorbide mononitrate, and recreational “poppers” (amyl nitrate or nitrite). Combining any of BlueChew’s ingredients with nitrates can cause severe, potentially life-threatening low blood pressure.
The clearance window varies by ingredient. Sildenafil and vardenafil clear the body enough to safely use nitrates after about 24 hours. Tadalafil, because it lasts so much longer, requires at least 48 hours of separation, and even then caution is warranted.
Alpha-blockers, prescribed for high blood pressure or prostate enlargement, also increase the risk of a significant blood pressure drop when taken alongside these drugs. Certain antifungal medications, some antibiotics, and HIV protease inhibitors can increase the concentration of the active ingredient in your blood, potentially intensifying both effects and side effects. If you take any of these, the dose typically needs to be adjusted.