Fadogia agrestis - does it increase testosterone?
Fadogia agrestis — a traditional medicinal plant from Africa is known for several positive qualities. It has been used in Africa and China for hundreds of years as a treatment for infertility in the form of erectile dysfunction.
However, for many, traditional use of a plant is not sufficient to justify its use today. So, what do the scientific studies say? Well, this question is not easy to answer, because not a huge amount of official scientific research has been performed on Fadogia agrestis. Most information comes from the same few studies that were carried out… on rats.
The most well referenced and commonly pointed to study can be found here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-7262.2005.00052.x
The results are as follows:
All the doses resulted in significant increase in mount frequency, intromission frequency and significantly prolonged the ejaculatory latency (P < 0.05) and reduced mount and intromission latency (P < 0.05). There was also a significant increase in serum testosterone concentrations in all the groups in a manner suggestive of dose-dependence (P < 0.05).
What this tells us is that, in rats at least, we can say with scientific authority that Fadogia agrestis causes increased sexual activity in male rats. The elevated serum testosterone concentrations levels being tied to the dosage also lets us say with a degree of confidence that fadogia agrestis, when given to male albino rats, causes testosterone levels to rise. This result was so clear that Yakubu et al., in their 2005 paper Aphrodisiac potentials of the aqueous extract of Fadogia agrestis (Schweinf. Ex Hiern) stem in male albino rat, made the argument that it was likely the rise in testosterone levels that was causing the observed increase in sexual behaviour:
The aqueous extract of Fadogia agrestis stem increased the blood testosterone concentrations and this may be the mechanism responsible for its aphrodisiac effects and various masculine behaviors. It may be used to modify impaired sexual functions in animals, especially those arising from hypotestosteronemia.
So what can we learn from this knowledge? Is it a coincidence that the very same medicinal plant that has been used for hundreds of years as a treatment for erectile dysfunction and as a fertility aid for me in African countries, is also shown to produce increased sexual activity in rats?
What about claims that Fadogia agrestis actually increases testicle size? Well, believe it or not, this is also backed up by studies on rats. Yakubu’s research in 2008 showed that:
Compared with the control, extract administration for 28 days at all the doses resulted in significant increase (P < 0.05) in percentage testes–body weight ratio
Now, all of this is very interesting. But are rat studies and a tradition of using Fadogia agrestis for these purposes enough to convince most people of the validity of the claims of testosterone boosting, sexual performance improvements, and.. testicle size increases? Probably not. These are big claims, but, surely we can view the fact that there is a traditional medicinal use, and that this traditional use is supported by scientific experiments on rats, as a kind of positive direction of evidence. We had a hypothesis, based upon hundreds of years of use and observed results, and then ran experiments which gave the results you would expect according to the traditional usage. This is extremely promising.
So what other forms of evidence do we have?
Well, there is a growing amount of anecdotal evidence from those willing to try for themselves and reveal their bloodworks. Here are a couple of examples:
Both men in these examples showed positive results from their experiments with Fadogia, although both also combined with Tongkat Ali.
The below is an even more informative example as he goes into the effects he felt in good detail. A good read if you are interested in taking these kinds of supplements.
It is worth noting that some people report no effects from Fadogia agrestis use, and as per the above reddit post, this may be because for those who already have normal to high levels of testosterone the effects won’t be noticed as much as in those who have lower levels. Indeed this effect was picked up in Yakubu’s 2005 conclusion:
It may be used to modify impaired sexual functions in animals, especially those arising from hypotestosteronemia.
As such this is a supplement that we would recommend to be taken by those who are living with normal to lower than normal levels of testosterone.
So, what are the final conclusions?
The question that we wanted to address was “does Fadogia agrestis increase testosterone in men?”
After reviewing the evidence, we can say with a degree of certainty that yes, it does, at least in men with normal to low levels of testosterone. Unfortunately, we do not have scientific studies based on humans, but with a combination of animal studies, traditional usage, and anecdotal evidence, the arguments in favour of Fadogia agrestis increasing testosterone in men is very strong.
