Maca root shows up on ingredient labels promising almost everything at once — more libido, more energy, “balanced hormones,” better workouts. It’s a real crop (a Peruvian radish relative, Lepidium meyenii, grown at extreme altitude in the Andes) with a genuine history of traditional use, and it has been tested in actual randomized controlled trials. But the marketing outruns the data in a few specific, checkable ways.
Here’s what the trial evidence actually shows once you separate what maca has been shown to do from what the label implies it does.
Does Maca Actually Boost Libido?
This is maca’s best-supported use. A 12-week double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in healthy men aged 21-56 gave participants 1,500 mg or 3,000 mg of maca daily. Both doses produced a significant improvement in self-reported sexual desire starting around week 8, compared to placebo.1
The same effect shows up in women. A 12-week double-blind, placebo-controlled trial gave 3.0 g/day of maca root to women experiencing antidepressant-induced (SSRI/SNRI) sexual dysfunction. The maca group had significantly higher remission rates than placebo, with the effect most pronounced in postmenopausal participants.2 Maca was well tolerated in both trials, with no more side effects than placebo.
What About Testosterone and Hormones?
Here’s the part the “hormone balancer” marketing tends to skip: in the same trial that found maca improved libido, serum testosterone and estradiol levels were not different between the maca and placebo groups.1 Maca’s libido effect doesn’t appear to run through boosting sex hormones at all — the researchers noted the mechanism is still unclear, possibly involving other compounds in the root rather than classic hormonal signaling.
The postmenopausal-women trial found the same pattern from the other direction: maca’s psychological and sexual-function benefits were “not related to estrogen or androgen content,” meaning it wasn’t acting like a plant-based hormone replacement either.3 If you’re buying maca expecting it to meaningfully shift your testosterone or estrogen levels, the controlled trials don’t support that — the interventions that actually move testosterone look different from this one.
Mood and Energy in Menopause
The same postmenopausal-women trial measured more than sexual function. At 3.5 g/day, maca reduced psychological symptoms including anxiety and depression scores compared to baseline, alongside the improvement in sexual dysfunction measures — again, independent of any estrogenic or androgenic activity.3 Researchers have proposed maca may act via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the system that helps regulate mood, stress response, and energy production, rather than through sex hormones directly.
This is a small trial, so treat the mood and energy claims as preliminary rather than settled — but it’s a more specific, better-supported claim than generic “energy tonic” marketing.
Does Maca Improve Exercise Performance?
The most direct test: eight experienced cyclists completed a 40km time trial before and after 14 days of maca extract, in a randomized crossover design against placebo. Maca significantly improved time-trial performance compared to each cyclist’s own baseline — but when compared head-to-head against the placebo trial, there was no significant difference.4 That pattern (real improvement vs. baseline, no edge vs. placebo) is a textbook sign the result may reflect practice effects or expectation rather than a true ergogenic effect, and the sample size (n=8) is too small to settle it either way.
Zooming out, a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis pooling 16 human and animal studies found large effects of maca on measures like forced swim time and resistance-to-fatigue tests, with a clear dose-response relationship attributed to maca’s macamide compounds.5 The catch: most of the largest, cleanest effect sizes come from animal models, not humans, so the practical takeaway for a lifter or runner is “plausible and worth watching,” not “proven.”
Fertility and Sperm Quality: Genuinely Unclear
This is the claim with the weakest support, despite being one of maca’s most common marketing angles. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis pooling five randomized controlled trials in men found mixed results across individual studies, and the pooled meta-analysis specifically failed to show that maca improved sperm concentration compared to placebo.6 If fertility is your actual goal, maca isn’t the trial-backed lever to pull — that claim is currently more tradition than evidence.
How to Take It, If You Try It
The trials with the clearest positive results used 1.5-3.5 g/day of maca root or extract, taken consistently for 8-12 weeks before judging the effect — this isn’t a same-day energy shot, and expecting an immediate lift is a good way to write it off too early. Gelatinized maca powder (starch removed during processing) tends to be gentler on digestion than raw maca powder, and it’s the form most trials and product labels use. Capsules are a fine alternative if you don’t want to mix powder into food or a shake.
Maca was well tolerated across all trials cited here, with side effect rates similar to placebo. As with any supplement, check with a doctor first if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or on medication — particularly anything affecting hormones, since maca’s mechanism there is still not fully mapped out.
Two well-reviewed picks if you want to try it without guessing on quality:
Gelatinized (starch removed) for easier digestion, the same processing style used in most of the trials above. Mixes into smoothies, oatmeal, or coffee.
Best for: Anyone who wants flexible dosing and doesn’t mind mixing a powder into food.
Check Price on Amazon →
No mixing, no taste — just capsules dosed close to what the sexual-desire and mood trials above used, at roughly 1.5g for 3 capsules.
Best for: Anyone who wants a set daily dose without measuring powder.
Check Price on Amazon →Frequently Asked Questions
Does maca root really work?
For libido specifically, yes — multiple placebo-controlled trials in both men and women show a real effect after 8-12 weeks of consistent use. For testosterone, fertility, and same-day energy, the trial evidence is weak or shows no effect. It’s a mixed picture, not a blanket yes or no.
Does maca raise testosterone?
No. The controlled trial that found maca improved libido specifically measured testosterone and estradiol, and found no difference versus placebo. Whatever maca is doing for sexual desire, it doesn’t appear to run through raising sex hormones.
How long does maca take to work?
The trials that found benefits for libido and mood used 8-12 weeks of daily use before measuring results. Don’t judge it after a few days.
The Bottom Line
Maca root’s best-supported benefit is libido, in both men and women, backed by real placebo-controlled trials — and that effect doesn’t appear to work through boosting testosterone or estrogen, which the same trials directly measured and ruled out. Mood and energy benefits in menopausal women look promising but are based on smaller studies. Exercise-performance and fertility claims are the weakest link: the cycling trial didn’t beat placebo, and the fertility meta-analysis found no effect on sperm concentration. Take maca for what the trials actually show, give it 8-12 weeks, and don’t expect it to replace training, sleep, or an actual hormone intervention.
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Affiliate Disclosure: FuelNFitHub is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we genuinely believe in. This article is for educational purposes and is not medical advice.
References
1. Gonzales GF, Cordova A, Vega K, Chung A, Villena A, Góñez C, Castillo S. Effect of Lepidium meyenii (MACA) on sexual desire and its absent relationship with serum testosterone levels in adult healthy men. Andrologia. 2002;34(6):367-372. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12472620/
2. Dording CM, Schettler PJ, Dalton ED, Parkin SR, Walker RS, Fehling KB, Fava M, Mischoulon D. A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial of Maca Root as Treatment for Antidepressant-Induced Sexual Dysfunction in Women. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:949036. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25954318/
3. Brooks NA, Wilcox G, Walker KZ, Ashton JF, Cox MB, Stojanovska L. Beneficial effects of Lepidium meyenii (Maca) on psychological symptoms and measures of sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women are not related to estrogen or androgen content. Menopause. 2008;15(6):1157-1162. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18784609/
4. Stone M, Ibarra A, Roller M, Zangara A, Stevenson E. A pilot investigation into the effect of maca supplementation on physical activity and sexual desire in sportsmen. J Ethnopharmacol. 2009;126(3):574-576. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19781622/
5. Huerta Ojeda Á, Rodríguez Rojas J, Cancino-López J, Barahona-Fuentes G, Pavez L, Yeomans-Cabrera MM, Jorquera-Aguilera C. Effects of Maca (Lepidium meyenii Walp.) on Physical Performance in Animals and Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2025;17(1):107. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11723211/
6. Lee HW, Lee MS, Qu F, Lee JW, Kim E. Maca (Lepidium meyenii Walp.) on semen quality parameters: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Pharmacol. 2022;13:934740. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36110519/