Male Menopause Supplements Compared (and the One Worth Buying)

Men who search for male menopause supplements tend to describe the same short list of changes: fewer morning erections, less interest in sex, flatter energy by mid afternoon. The shelf answer is a row of pills and powders, each with a study someone quotes. Below is what each common pick was tested on, and why pine pollen is the one we would put in your bag.

Male menopause is called andropause

Andropause is the everyday name. Doctors use late-onset hypogonadism, and older papers use ADAM, short for androgen deficiency in the aging male. All three describe the same thing: a slow fall in testosterone that shows up in how a man feels and performs from his 40s onward.

The word menopause is a loose fit, because nothing switches off on a set date. Testosterone drifts down a little each year, and some men feel the drift far more than others.

Male menopause age

The Massachusetts Male Aging Study followed men aged 40 and over for 7 to 10 years. Reviews of that work put the fall in total testosterone at 1 to 2% a year, and the fall in free testosterone (the part your body can use) at about 2 to 3% a year. Ireland's health service, the HSE, says the symptoms men link to male menopause are common in the late 40s to early 50s.

The European Male Ageing Study tested more than 3,000 men aged 40 to 79 across Europe. Researchers singled out three sexual symptoms as the ones linked to low testosterone. They defined late-onset hypogonadism as those three symptoms plus total testosterone under 11 nmol/L and free testosterone under 220 pmol/L, and 2.1% of the men met that strict bar.

Male menopause symptoms men describe

The European study's three were fewer morning erections, fewer sexual thoughts and erectile dysfunction. The HSE adds low energy and enthusiasm, mood swings and irritability, loss of muscle and of the ability to train hard, a bigger belly, poor sleep or more tiredness, and weaker concentration and short-term memory.

Male menopause supplements men compare

Search autocomplete fills in "male menopause vitamins", "male menopause pills" and "andropause supplements for men". These are the names that come up most, with the study each one leans on.

Zinc

Ananda Prasad's group at Wayne State University gave nine older men (average age 64) zinc gluconate for six months, published in Nutrition in 1996. Serum testosterone went from 8.3 to 16.0 nmol/L.

Vitamin D

In a 12 month trial reported by Pilz and colleagues in 2011, 54 overweight men low in vitamin D took about 3,300 IU a day or a placebo. Total testosterone in the vitamin D group rose by roughly 3 nmol/L, to 13.4 nmol/L.

Ashwagandha

Lopresti and colleagues ran an 8 week crossover trial in overweight men aged 40 to 70 with mild fatigue (American Journal of Men's Health, 2019). On ashwagandha, testosterone rose about 14.7% more than on placebo, and DHEA-S about 18% more.

Tongkat ali

Tambi, Imran and Henkel gave men diagnosed with late-onset hypogonadism 200 mg a day of a water-soluble Eurycoma longifolia extract for a month and reported higher testosterone (Andrologia, 2012).

Fenugreek

Amanda Rao's team at the University of Sydney gave 120 men aged 43 to 70 a fenugreek seed extract or placebo for 12 weeks (The Aging Male, 2016). Total and free testosterone rose more in the fenugreek group.

DHEA

DHEA is a hormone in its own right, the one your adrenal glands make. Morales and Yen gave 13 men and 17 women aged 40 to 70 a nightly 50 mg dose for three months in 1994, and 67% of the men reported better physical and psychological wellbeing.

Why pine pollen is the pick for andropause

Most of those trials picked men for another reason first: low zinc, low vitamin D, or overweight with fatigue. The pine pollen pilot measured the andropause questionnaire directly.

In 2024, Wolkodoff and colleagues gave pine pollen tincture to 10 men aged 47 to 78 for 8 weeks. Average total testosterone rose from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL. Their scores on the qADAM, the andropause questionnaire named after androgen deficiency in the aging male, rose from 23.9 to 31.7 (higher is better). A 2025 pilot in 11 men found free testosterone went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL while SHBG, the protein that ties testosterone up, fell.

The plant itself has history behind it. In 1971 Šaden-Krehula isolated testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione from Scots pine pollen, the first time testosterone was found in a plant. In China, song hua fen (pine pollen) has been recorded in herbal texts since the Tang dynasty and is listed in the 2020 Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Korean cooks press it into songhwa dasik tea cakes.

Men who take it describe stronger morning wood, more drive, and wanting to train again. Our full guide to pine pollen covers the plant, the harvest and the studies in more depth.

What to look for when buying pine pollen

Pine pollen grains have a tough outer wall and two small air sacs, built to ride the wind. How the pollen is processed and stored decides what ends up in you. Check four things on the label.

• Cracked cell. The tough outer wall has been broken open.
• Tincture over powder. Powder clumps, needs a scoop and a smoothie, and sits in a bag open to air every time you use it. A tincture is a dropper under your tongue, and the extract stays sealed between doses.
• Spagyric, whole-plant extraction. The pollen is extracted, then the minerals left behind are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle.
• The glass. Dark amber is a step in the right direction. Dark Miron glass is the gold standard because it keeps light off the extract, and it is what Mara uses.

Mara's Pine Pollen ticks all four. It is wild-harvested, cracked-cell Pinus radiata pollen, made spagyric and bottled in 50 ml of dark Miron glass. It tastes soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness. Take 1 to 2 droppers a day, held under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds then swallowed, or stirred into water before training. The bottle goes in a gym bag or a desk drawer and lasts 30 to 50 days. If you want to hear how it went for other buyers, read our pine pollen review.

Pine Pollen considerations

The recommendation on the product page reads: "Contains alcohol. If you're pregnant, nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it."

Questions men ask about andropause supplements

What is male menopause called?

Andropause. Doctors call it late-onset hypogonadism, and older research uses ADAM, androgen deficiency in the aging male.

At what age does male menopause start?

The HSE puts the common symptoms in the late 40s to early 50s. The Massachusetts Male Aging Study tracked the gradual testosterone fall in men from 40 onward.

Which vitamins do men take for male menopause?

Zinc and vitamin D are the usual two. Each has a study in men who were low in that nutrient to begin with.

Is there a pine pollen study in men over 40?

Yes. In the 2024 Wolkodoff pilot, 10 men aged 47 to 78 went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL total testosterone in 8 weeks.