Highlights
- Prime Male enhancement pills claim to be natural testosterone boosters.
- The Prime Male website makes claims without linking to evidence, and objective reviews are difficult to find.
- As erectile dysfunction related to hormone imbalance is relatively rare, most men are likely better off with FDA-approved prescription medications for ED.
There are a seemingly endless number of gas station sex pills, ranging from risky tainted products to herbal supplements that are likely harmless but also make big promises on the back of sketchy evidence. Which brings us to Prime Male male enhancement pills. Does Prime Male measure up to its hype? What’s in these pills? And is there any chance they’ll work? [Español]
What Are Prime Male Enhancement Pills?
According to Prime Male’s own website, Prime Male is a “natural testosterone booster” containing twelve different ingredients to maintain and increase the testosterone available to your body to use. This is supposed to help you build muscle, shed fat, and improve your sexual drive. It’s supposed to return your testosterone level to what it was years ago — in weeks.
Like the other herbal supplements we’ve checked, Prime Male doesn’t make any specific medical claims, such as treating erectile dysfunction.
What Are the Ingredients in Prime Male?
The majority of ingredients in Prime Male are more or less what you’d find in a multivitamin, including:
- Vitamin D3
- Vitamin K2
- Vitamin B6
- Magnesium
- Zinc
- Boron
With some more exotic ingredients at lower doses:
- D-aspartic acid calcium chelate
- Panax ginseng
- Luteolin
- Ashwagandha extract
- Nettle root
- Black pepper extract
Is There Any Evidence That the Ingredients in Prime Male Work for ED?
The vitamins and minerals in Prime Male are fairly common ingredients you’ll find in many standard multivitamins. Perhaps the biggest point of concern is dosage. Prime Male expects you to take four of their supplements a day, every day, for several weeks in order to see results. If you’re considering Prime Male, ask your doctor for a vitamin deficiency test first and ask about possible signs of overdose, especially as many of these vitamins are available through diet, sun exposure, and other natural methods.
The latter half of the ingredients list is where things become a bit more questionable. Prime Male makes many claims, but they don’t present any research to back them up.
Here’s a breakdown of what we know about these ingredients.
- D-aspartic acid calcium chelate. Better known to doctors as aspartate, this is a fairly common amino acid. While Prime Male claims that at least two studies showed dramatic effects in human men in increasing free testosterone (but they don’t cite the studies), a systematic review of the research in 2017 found the results in humans to be inconsistent and found that more research was needed.
- Panax ginseng. While it’s popular in Chinese herbal medicine, a review of ginseng studies published in 2021 on ginseng found a trivial effect on erectile dysfunction.
- Luteolin. Luteolin is a flavonoid, something naturally produced by plants as part of their life cycle. Prime Male claims it blocks “girly” hormones such as estrogen. There is some evidence of this in cell studies, but research suggests you’re better off getting your luteolin from a vegetable-heavy diet.
- Ashwagandha extract. While the patent holder of the specific type of extract used by Prime Male offers a range of clinical studies, none of them are the broad, double-blind objective studies considered the scientific gold standard.
- Black pepper extract. Prime Male claims that piperine, which is found in black pepper, increases absorption of nutrients and medications. While that’s accurate, it’s unclear what effect, if any, piperine would have on the rest of Prime Male’s ingredients.
- Nettle root. Prime Male states that most testosterone is bound up by the protein sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), and the lignan in nettle root will free up this testosterone. It is true that lignans will bind to SHBG, yet lignans have a complicated role when it comes to your hormones. You’re probably better off getting them from your diet.
Is Prime Male Safe?
We’ve found no evidence that any ingredient in Prime Male has a potentially dangerous interaction with any other, or with other medications. Review the ingredients list with your doctor before taking Prime Male, however, and consider taking an allergy test.
If you think you have a hormone imbalance, ask for a hormone test as well. If there’s a genuine problem with your hormones, you’re better off working with an endocrinologist.
What Do Prime Male Reviews Say?
The Prime Male website has quite a few testimonials, beyond the usual sports stars you’d expect. And, to the company’s credit, there are relatively few testimonials that are claiming you’ll go from couch potato to muscle-bound hero, although the videos are all hosted on the YouTube channel of Prime Male’s holding company, Roar Ambition.
Beyond these carefully controlled statements, finding an honest review of Prime Male can be tricky. In our search for reviews, we found dozens of different “reviews” that were really paid-for content and marked as such. Others pretended to be objective, before offering a coupon for the product at the end. Some reviews we found even copied materials and text straight from the Prime Male website, or made claims, such as Prime Male being made in FDA-inspected facilities, that weren’t substantiated.
The few honest reviews we’ve found were generally mixed. The consensus seems to be that it might work, but the dosing and cost make it risky compared to other supplements.
Is Prime Male Worth the Money?
Prime Male is more expensive than most male enhancement pills, and it doesn’t come with a money-back guarantee or any similar promise. A daily dose costs $2.50, and you can get FDA-approved ED medication from many retailers at the same price or less per dose.
Nor is it clear it’ll help, at least for ED. One study of a hundred men with ED, for example, found that while 18 patients had low testosterone levels, two-thirds of that group had a normal libido.
What’s more, there are several causes of ED, and boosting testosterone only helps men with hypogonadism (low T). It’s unlikely to cure ED in men with normal testosterone levels and ED from another cause, such as diabetes, another medical condition, or psychological issues.
Make a Plan to Treat Your ED
Erectile dysfunction is a complex medical problem, and the causes are different for every man. Your best strategy is to work with your doctor to develop a multi-pronged treatment plan that combines FDA-approved erectile dysfunction medication with lifestyle changes and other treatment tailored to your needs.
To learn more about how ED medication can help you, and how you can get a prescription with a complimentary telehealth consultation, visit our erectile dysfunction page today.
Dan is a long-time freelance writer focusing on technology, science, health, and medicine, with a lifelong interest in physics, biology, and medicine. His work has taken a particular focus on scientific studies “beyond the headlines,” reading the study to more closely examine the results.