Editorial standards

These are the rules we work to. They exist so that a reader can judge a page without having to trust us.

1. Sourcing

Health-related statements are based on one of the following, in this order of preference:

1. National health services and public health bodies (NHS, CDC, WHO, FDA).
2. Peer-reviewed clinical guidance and systematic reviews.
3. Professional bodies in sexual medicine, gynaecology and urology.
4. Established medical publishers, used for plain-language explanation rather than for primary claims.

Where the evidence is thin, contested or absent, the article says so. We do not present a plausible mechanism as a finding.

2. Review

Health-related claims are checked against the sources above before publication and re-checked at least once a year. Claims about materials, body-safe manufacturing and product care are checked by our product safety reviewer. A page that has not been checked against a published source does not say that it has.

We do not claim clinical review. We will not print a clinician's name on a page unless that clinician has read it, and no page currently carries such a claim. If a page needs a clinical opinion we cannot source, we write that the evidence is limited and point to a service that can help.

The names on this site are editorial names. They are used so that work has an accountable byline, and they never imply a clinical licence, a medical qualification or an institutional affiliation.

3. Commerce standards

We link to stores run by our own team, and we audit them. A store keeps its links while it meets all of the following:

• A published shipping page with a working-day delivery window.
• A stated packaging and sender-name policy.
• A payment option appropriate to the market, including cash on delivery where it is offered.
• A returns and faults policy that distinguishes an opened intimate product from a faulty one.
• Named materials on product pages.

Audits are repeated quarterly. Failing one is a reason to fix the store or drop the link, not to add a disclaimer.

4. Independence

• No payment is accepted for coverage, ranking or a favourable mention.
• No supplier reviews an article before publication.
• No supplier can request a change after publication. Corrections happen only when something is wrong.
• Store links are marked rel="sponsored" and labelled in the copy.

The stores we link to are run by the same team as this site. Independence here means the editorial process does not answer to them: a page is not edited to protect stock levels, and a product that performs badly for readers is written up as such.

5. Writing rules

• Conclusion first. Each article opens with a direct answer, then the reasoning.
• One question per page. If a page needs three topics, it becomes three pages.
• No fear-based framing, no medical claims dressed as reassurance.
• Plain language over clinical shorthand, with the technical term in brackets where it helps.
• Adults only. Content describes health and products; it does not depict or describe sex acts graphically.

6. Corrections

• Factual errors are corrected in place and the page's updated date changes.
• Substantive corrections — a wrong recommendation, a wrong safety claim — are noted in the article.
• If a correction changes the advice materially, the article is reviewed again before it is republished.
• Requests: editor@theintimacyedit.com.

7. What we will not do

• Publish health advice without a route to a clinician.
• Recommend a product because a supplier asked.
• Use a site-wide footer or sidebar as a block of commercial links. Links appear in context, in the body of an article, where they answer the question the reader asked.
• Present this site as anything other than an editorial site funded by the stores it links to.