Semenax is a sexual enhancement supplement for men. The brand claims their product significantly increases semen volume and orgasm intensity.
Most of the male enhancement brands we’ve reviewed have made wild claims and had terrible formulations, like in the case of our recent Libido Max Red reviews article, so it will be interesting to see if Semenax holds up to scientific research.
In this article we’ll review the ingredients of Semenax based on published medical research to determine if it’s likely to be effective, or if it’s another male enhancement brand selling a dream. We’ll also explain why we believe the brand’s claims of clinical proof are misleading.
Ingredient Review
The first thing we noticed when attempting to review Semenax’s formulation is that the brand doesn’t publish a Supplement Facts label on their website. This is a red flag, and a safety risk for consumers. People deserve to know exactly what’s in a supplement before purchasing it, not just the select ingredients the manufacturer wants to highlight.
Without a Supplement Facts label, you can’t determine if there are additional ingredients that the manufacturer is choosing not to feature on their website that may be harmful, or may cause allergic reactions. You also cannot determine if the ingredients are effectively dosed, which is why a failure to publish a Supplement Facts label is a hallmark of a low-quality brand.
One of the first ingredients highlighted on Semenax’s site is l-arginine HCL, an amino acid with a hydrogen chloride molecule attached. The company claims that “studies show” this ingredient can “double sperm and semen volume.” This claim is, of course, entirely uncited.
While there is some medical research suggesting l-arginine may improve semen quality, we can’t locate one single medical study proving the amino acid doubles sperm and semen volume, and we will consider this claim inaccurate and misleading.
Semenax also contains Epimedium Sagittatum, which is the botanical name for horny goat weed. The brand claims this ingredient “boosts libido and testosterone levels for greater sperm production.” This is false; there have been no human trials proving horny goat weed increases testosterone levels or sperm production.
We published a horny goat weed reviews article recently, and have analyzed the medical research on this compound extensively. It may enhance libido somewhat, but has no place in a semen volume supplement.
Maca is another active ingredient in Semenax, and the fact that raw maca is used is another sign that this company’s formulators are incompetent. Maca is essentially indigestible; composed of complex starches that need to be cooked, which is why all high-quality supplements contain gelatinized maca rather than raw maca. Consuming raw maca is like consuming a raw potato.
Semenax contains an active ingredient called Swedish Flower Pollen, which they claim provides “extra vim, vigor, and volume.” Aside from these claims being comically unscientific, the term “Swedish Flower Pollen” returns zero results in the largest medical database in the U.S. called PubMed. Thus we will conclude that this is another ineffective ingredient for increasing semen volume.
The final ingredient we will analyze, for the sake of brevity, is Vitamin E. Semenax doesn’t even attempt to claim that this vitamin has any impact on seminal volume, instead claiming that it’s “good for your arteries” and can “help address curvature of the penis.”
We cannot identify any medical research suggesting that Vitamin E supplementation in humans increases seminal volume or orgasm intensity, so we will consider this another ineffective ingredient.
Overall we find Semenax to be a terribly-formulated supplement. We didn’t identify one single ingredient that’s proven to meet the health claims stated on their website, and even if an ingredient was found to be effective, there would be no way to know whether it would be effective in Semenax because the company doesn’t publish ingredient dosages.
An ingredient may be effective for symptom X at a dosage of 1000 milligrams (mg), but if that ingredient is included in a supplement at 1 mg it will not be effective. Without dosage information, efficacy is impossible to conclude.
Misleading Clinical Trial Claims
Like many low quality supplement brands, Semenax claims that their products are “clinically proven” to work without any legitimate medical evidence proving so.
Under the banner “Clinical Studies,” Semenax links to a PDF document with results from a “study” they paid a for-profit research firm called Vedic Lifesciences to conduct. The study even lists “Leading Edge Marketing” as the sponsor.
This is not legitimate medical research, as there is so much bias involved in the process that the results are useless.
Legitimate medical research is research published in peer-reviewed medical journals. The standard of methodological and data quality for these publications is high, and results typically have to be published even if the trial fails (shows unfavorable results).
Any company can pay a private research firm to test their products and then publish results saying the product works. This is not science, and it is not clinical research in any medically-relevant sense of the term.
We find it highly unethical when companies make clinical claims like Semenax does, because it misleads consumers who don’t have the scientific background to distinguish between legitimate medical research published in a journal and company marketing efforts.
We also find it misleading that Semenax refers to “clinical studies” when there only appears to be one study.
Better Alternatives
There is medical research on a few compounds which have been proven to increase semen volume, but the research is limited.
A medical review of botanical compounds for sperm quality, published in the Advances for Nutrition journal, found that the combination of selenium at 200 micrograms (mcg) daily and N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) at 600 milligrams (mg) daily was effective in improving semen volume.
The same review noted that supplementation of a patented probiotic called Flortec was also proven to increase semen volume.
A separate medical review found that antioxidant intake was associated with improvements in various parameters in semen quality in healthy men, which suggests that men wanting to naturally improve semen quality should increase intake of fruits and vegetables.
