The men’s health segment of the nutraceuticals world has long emphasized attributes like strength, athletic performance, and virility. In recent years, brands have taken a more generalized wellness approach, with condition-specific focus on cardiovascular health, active living, stress support, and sexual health.

According to Umasudhan Palaniswamy, CEO of Valensa International, men are focusing on their preventive health, after historically reacting to health problems as they arise. Holistic wellness is also gaining traction among male consumers, leading to the inclusion of ingredients that support stress management, cognitive function, mood enhancement, longevity, and self-care.

Men are also “addressing health topics that have been considered ‘embarrassing’ in the past, like men’s lower urinary health issues, hair loss, erectile dysfunction, and low energy levels,” said Palaniswamy.

Consumer and Product Trends

According to market data specialist SPINS, for the 52-week period ending Feb. 23, the top-selling products it tracks and categorizes as men’s health supplements were men’s and senior multivitamin formulations ($291.6 million, -5.2%), saw palmetto ($32.8 million, -8.2%), animal-based protein ($32.6 million, -24.3%), fenugreek ($27 million, -24.8%), maca ($17.2 million, -5.0%), beta-sitosterol ($16.1 million, +8.3%), and yohimbe ($13.5 million, -10.7%).

Men’s health supplements tracked by SPINS that experienced the fastest growth rates in sales over the same time period included whole food concentrates ($40,799, +96.6%), Boswellia ($18,353, +46.2%), muira puama ($256,348, +83.6%), fish oil ($899,616, +69.8%), liver extracts ($719,378, +52.2%), and folic acid ($985,541, +53.6%).

Discussing broad wellness trends most likely to influence men’s health supplements, Scott Dicker, senior director of market insights at SPINS, said that personalization through wearable technology will have a major impact. “With technology like rings and watches, consumers can track health and fitness markers like stress or sleep, further influencing the need for a sleep or mood support supplement.”

Products generically positioned simply for “men” can fall short on meeting shoppers’ stated needs, such as enhanced sports performance, nutrient deficiency, energy, libido, or mental/emotional well-being, said Jordan Miller, vice president of marketing for Nutrition21.

“Men are increasingly favoring wellness products and services that prioritize personalization and scientific backing,” said Simo Echchafai, senior vice president of human health ingredients for North America at Aker BioMarine. “This trend includes customized nutrition plans, targeted supplements, and fitness programs designed to meet individual needs and goals. The focus is on effectiveness and credibility, with consumers gravitating toward products that deliver measurable health benefits.”

As men’s health products shift to offer more holistic benefits, expect multi-ingredient formulations to support the shift from more narrowly-focused products, said Steve Fink, vice president of marketing at PLT Health Solutions.

Positioning products for age, lifestyle interests, life stages, or nutritional needs will be key. “A Gen Z consumer may not prioritize things like energy or sexual health in the same way a Gen X consumer would,” noted Miller, “as the Gen Z consumer may not have a strong need for that in the younger life stage. Gen Z consumers are more focused on mental health as they balance demands of their personal and professional lives, while older generations focus on living with vitality.” 

With Gen Z men gaining more purchasing power, they’re likely to shake up the category, “favoring natural, wellness, and transparency in their purchasing habits in comparison to previous generations,” Dicker noted. “They’re also primarily getting their supplement information from social media, which warrants consideration when trying to reach them as a consumer audience.”

Compared to prior generations, Gen Z men have a higher interest in diverse, integrative health services focused on self-care like massages and chiropractic care, along with grooming, beauty, and personal care products, said Palaniswamy.

“Gen Z and younger Millennials prioritize longevity, stress management, and daily vitality over short-term ‘boosts’,” said Fink. “Cellflo6, which can support both active performance and vascular health, fits well with their demand for multi-benefit products. Expect an increase in sachets, stick packs, and hybrid products combining testosterone support with adaptogens or nootropics.”

Overall, young men are shifting toward products driven by a focus on clean eating, said Echchafai, which means a prioritization of “minimal ingredients that are natural with no artificial additives,” and a rejection of “synthetic or heavily processed options … Simple, recognizable ingredients build trust, while a deeper understanding of sourcing and formulation reinforces their confidence in a product’s effectiveness.”

This is good news for whole-food sources rich in several bioactive ingredients, eliminating the need for long ingredient lists or processing, said Echchafai. “Superba Krill oil, a natural blend of marine phospholipids, omega-3 EPA and DHA, choline, and astaxanthin, is a powerful ingredient for men’s health. The real magic is linked to its concentration of phospholipids that play a crucial role in cell membrane structure and function. The phospholipids in krill oil efficiently deliver omega-3s and choline directly to cell membranes, promoting overall cellular health,” Echchafai said.

A blend of bioactive compounds such as those found in Superba Krill oil are linked to plenty of the on-trend measures of vitality that men are seeking out, such as inflammation modulation, sports recovery, muscle strength, and joint health, Echchafai noted.

Sexual Health and Hormonal Balance

There seems to be less stigma around male wellness shoppers talking about sexual health and well-being, said Miller. “With the rise of direct-to-consumer brands making sexual health the core of their brand identity, it’s opening the conversation that seeking supplements to support quality of life in this area is a healthy habit.”

Though slightly controversial, testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is becoming more mainstream, with several public figures and celebrities now openly endorsing and utilizing it. Healthcare research company IQVIA estimated that prescriptions for testosterone grew from 7.3 million to more than 11 million between 2019 and 2024.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only approved TRT prescriptions for those diagnosed with deficient levels of the hormone, and has taken issue with the surge of the TRT industry. The agency reported it is chiefly concerned with unsubstantiated claims, improper diagnosis, and evidence calling its safety into question.

Nearly one-third of men prescribed TRT were never diagnosed with a testosterone deficiency, the American Urological Association noted.

Dicker said that while TRT will remain relatively fringe, its influence on the men’s health category could play out similarly to the burgeoning GLP-1 support supplement category.

“I do believe that hormonal health is going to gain further attention, especially as the concept of health span is resonating with consumers,” he noted. “I predict we will see a similar although smaller-scale response as with the GLP-1 industry response. That is, there will be ‘competitor’ products like those purported to be natural testosterone boosters that were once saved for the bodybuilding community, but will now find an expanded audience of men hearing about testosterone levels in a more regular kind of way.”

Dicker added: “Then, there will be the bigger segment of companion products and those that support the nutritional needs of people using TRT. This new marriage between hormones and pharmaceuticals that has been gaining acceptance in the weight loss categories may have reduced the stigma and may become common practice for people using some of these hormones.”

Consumer education is crucial, as many products make hormone support claims without scientific backing. Without a good understanding of the mechanism of action, combined with gold-standard human clinical findings, manufacturers shouldn’t trust hormone support claims being made by an ingredient supplier, said Palaniswamy.  “Also, we need to address the potential effects of some of these testosterone replacement therapies, like cardiovascular issues, skin reactions, and increase in benign prostatic hyperplasia (prostate enlargement),” he said.

Even though serious hormonal imbalances typically occur late in life, Millennial and Gen Z consumers are taking the strongest interest in hormone support products for overall well-being, noted observers speaking at Natural Products Expo West. Nearly half (49%) of men in a consumer survey by Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ) reported they’d had their hormone levels tested within the past two years.

The rise of more convenient, at-home health test kits will be a major growth driver for natural hormonal support products, said Nathan Price, PhD, chief science officer for Thorne and professor and co-director at the Center for Human Healthspan at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.

“The ability for us to monitor hormones on an individualized basis, year-to-year, and understand those results is getting much deeper,” Price noted. “The effects of hormones can be easy to measure directly from the blood. We recently had one analysis where we measured blood concentrations of many molecules, proteins, and metabolites, and created an algorithm to help explain the changes, and hormones explain the vast majority of everything you’re going to see. If I create an atlas of the most important molecules that dominate health outcomes, hormones are at the top of the pyramid — they’re very strong controls of what goes on with overall biology.”

Consumers who can see that supplementation can “move the needle” via test kits will have a lot more trust that a natural product is creating change, said Price. 

Clinical research is in an era where participants can share much more about the supplements and medications they’re taking and are more willing than ever to try an at-home hormone test, or share data collected from their health trackers. This information can be incorporated into either formal, peer-reviewed research, or used to inform a brand about its product’s efficacy.

“There’s so much more information that we collect and monitor from ourselves, and we’re at a point where it’s being legitimized in both science and care,” said Zeenia Framroze, CEO and founder of Alethios, Inc.

Hormones are “a difficult system to study,” she said. “Hormonal health has impacts not just on sexual or reproductive health but on how you’re feeling. Anyone on social media has seen something about the ‘cortisol effect’ and there’s a lot of misinformation out there because you don’t know where those studies are coming from … Research is also too expensive and is being done in a site-based way. I don’t know how many great sex health studies can be conducted with a team of research assistants around.” 

When it comes to bringing a men’s hormonal health product to market, developers should rely on feedback from consumer audiences, as people tend to be hesitant while talking about these sorts of health challenges, said Hunter Morris, co-founder and CEO of Hello Cake, a direct-to-consumer brand specializing in sexual wellness products and compound medications. The company just broke into the supplement market with a libido support formulation called Sex Drive For Him.

“We can leverage data from that community for actionable insights, and the fact that people are sharing their individual problems over these platforms has made a big difference over the past few years,” Morris said.

Marketing in this area can be difficult due to a myriad of advertising restrictions, noted Susan Allen, co-founder of Here We Flo. “Anything to do with pleasure is completely out of the question. The educational approach is one avenue, but we always need to come up with creative ways to reference things.”

Thanks to social media, Gen Z and Millennial audiences, for the first time since a high school health class, are getting additional information on sexual and hormonal health, albeit with a total lack of quality control, noted Allen.

It was important for Hello Cake to ensure the company maintained the trust of its audience as it branched out into supplements, said Morris. “There’s a real responsibility to be clear about what a product does and doesn’t do.”

Overall, hormonal health can be a relatively controversial territory compared to other categories. And many consumers are weighing the pros and cons of the natural route versus prescription medications.

Typically, consumers below the age of 50 are more inclined to try a supplement first as an entry point, Morris said, based on consumer feedback, while those between 35 and 55 tend to have a more holistic mindset. “I don’t think people want to be stuck on prescriptions for a long period of time, but when you do have an issue in this area, people want it resolved and want to feel back to normal extremely quickly.”

Price concurred that while supplementation and lifestyle interventions are much gentler and come with fewer side effects, it takes a lot more time and dedication. “There are trade-offs we have to go through when thinking about this, but coupling a product with testing, defining efficacy and outcomes, and throwing that into a dense ecosystem will give us better ways to dial that side in for everybody.”

“Think about the GLP-1 pathway and the role of the continuous glucose monitor. We love wearables because people want to understand how something is affecting them. We want to see it in a controlled, structured way, especially in sexual and hormonal health where so little has been done in the past,” said Framroze.

Improving testosterone by way of improving multiple health pathways, rather than relying on a prescription therapy, will be most appealing to younger audiences, concurred Fink.

“Natural solutions like TestFactor [Sphaeranthus indicus and Mangifera indica complex], which supports testosterone levels through multiple pathways, will gain traction as a proactive, non-pharmaceutical approach for men who want to optimize their hormone levels without prescription therapy,” he said.

“Across the industry, we’re seeing a shift toward longitudinal studies that track real-world hormonal balance and metabolic outcomes over time … Many testosterone boosters focus solely on DHEA or zinc. TestFactor’s multi-pathway formulation, which addresses not just testosterone but also stress and metabolic imbalance, represents the next evolution,” Fink added. 

Supplements with claims about supporting healthy testosterone products were abundant on the Expo West trade show floor. Irwin Naturals, for instance, had nearly 10 different products with a variety of testosterone claims and other health benefits, some positioned for men 40-plus or 60-plus years old, while others also included cardiovascular support ingredients.

The formulations featured essential nutrients and specialty ingredients like plant sterols, PQQ, fish oil, and adaptogens said to support hormonal balance, including ashwagandha, shilajit, Asian ginseng, tongkat ali, fenugreek, ginkgo biloba, and more.

Similarly, youtheory debuted a shilajit supplement, with a “boosts healthy testosterone” claim front-of-pack, along with a maca supplement that features “healthy libido” and “endurance” claims on the front label. Each of these adaptogenic supplements are traditionally used in Ayurveda and Peruvian traditional medicine, respectively, for sexual wellness and energy.

Getting Older

As men age, they’re concerned with maintaining cardiovascular health, fitness, endurance, mobility, energy, sexual well-being, prostate health and more, creating plenty of room for customization.

“One emerging area of research that is exciting is the link between cardiovascular health and men’s overall health,” said Sébastien Bornet, vice president of global sales and marketing at Horphag Research. “Poor circulation is often the underlying cause for many health concerns among men, from cognitive function to sexual wellness. We are particularly excited about recent findings on Pycnogenol’s role in improving endothelial function and circulation, which are critical for cardiovascular health, exercise performance, and sexual wellness.”

In patients with stable coronary artery disease, the effects of Pycnogenol on endothelial function were investigated by assessing flow-mediated dilation in the upper arm artery. The eight-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study showed an improvement in flow-mediated dilation by 32% in the Pycnogenol group, while it deteriorated slightly in placebo patients.

“Additionally, Pycnogenol has been shown to be beneficial for the main cardiovascular risk factors,” he said. “Several clinical studies showed Pycnogenol’s potential to normalize blood pressure and to improve the blood lipid profile, as well as blood sugar values.”

According to Fink, the role of exercise performance and cardiovascular markers, rather than cardiovascular markers alone, is an understated marker of longevity in need of more research. Science on ingredients like Cellflo6 green tea extract, which improves nitric oxide, cardiovascular health markers, and exercise performance in clinical studies, can drive the industry to bridge a gap between athletic performance and longevity, “a space where nitric oxide, testosterone balance, and metabolic health interact,” said Fink.        

With nearly 50% of men estimated to experience BPH by the age of 50, there’s demand for natural products that can attenuate the issue and resolve the urination problems associated with the condition.

“The male prostate is the size of a walnut in a healthy male in their 20s. By the time a man reaches their 40s, it is now the size of a golf ball, or even a tangerine … [benign prostatic hyperplasia] is the fourth most common diagnosis among men behind coronary artery disease, hypertension, and diabetes,” said Palaniswamy.

Saw palmetto continues to serve as a hero ingredient here, as its bioactive fatty acids have been shown to mitigate the growth of the male prostate by balancing the conversion of testosterone to DHT, which drives the enlargement. Valensa’s USPlus saw palmetto ingredient was shown in a clinical study to significantly improve self-reported prostate symptoms, quality of life, and uroflowmetry parameters in men with moderate BPH symptoms at baseline.

Ingredient manufacturers are examining other botanicals that may support prostate health. Pharmactive’s Plasys300, a rye pollen and phytosterol blend thought to inhibit excess testosterone production, was recently shown to support self-reported measures of nocturia, which is often a sign of a bladder obstruction caused by an enlarged prostate.

In 50 men, supplementation was linked to 88% of participants reporting meaningful reductions in the urge to urinate, and 90% reporting fewer nighttime awakenings.

Age-related hormonal changes, slowdown in metabolism, muscle loss, the use of certain medications, and lifestyle factors all contribute to fatigue. An estimated 40.7% of older men report experiencing overall fatigue, and 58.8% of men report mental fatigue, suggesting a need to include ingredients that foster a sense of vitality in products positioned for older men.

Hair loss is often a hallmark of getting older. “The older Gen Z demographic is refraining from the use of drugs like finasteride to combat early hair loss and look for natural solutions to stop and delay hair loss. They are leery of drug side effects and are better-informed,” Palaniswamy noted.

“Men are increasingly turning to innovative methods to combat hair loss and regain their hair,” he added. “Valensa has launched USPlusDerm to provide clinically proven solutions to men for addressing hair loss and promote hair growth without sexual side effects.”

By acting on the conversion of testosterone to DHT, a compound which binds to hair receptors causing them to shrink, saw palmetto can also help to prevent hair loss and maintain density, Palaniswamy noted.

Some ingredients have crossover appeal, exhibiting some effect on multiple health challenges common in older men. Nitric oxide boosters, for instance, have been stalwart for their ability to improve vascular function, exercise performance, and sexual function, and NO2-booster claims are as prevalent as ever in new products developed for men’s health.

“Pycnogenol, our flagship ingredient, is a great example of this trend,” said Bornet, “as it is backed by over 160 clinical studies and supports multiple facets of men’s health, including circulation, endurance, prostate health, cognitive function, and sexual health.”

“Nitric oxide (NO) is an area we’re excited about … NO is naturally produced in the body, but it declines as one ages,” said Miller. “NO helps maintain key areas of health consumers focus on as they age: physical activity, cognitive health, cardiovascular health, blood flow, and, particularly relevant to this audience, men’s sexual health.”

Nutrition21’s Nitrosigine, a patented complex of bonded arginine silicate, has been the subject of eight clinical studies demonstrating its safety and efficacy in increasing NO levels, supporting physical performance, sexual vitality, cognition, and cardiovascular health with a 1.5-gram dose.

Stress and Mental Health

According to market researcher FMCG Gurus, “60% of men measure good health by how fit and active they are,” while focusing less on internal aspects of health such as stress, emotions, and dietary habits. “Internal aspects of men’s health should not be overlooked, therefore it is important that the health and wellness industry place more significance on addressing various areas of men’s health, such as their well-being and diets, in a manner that is relatable and appealing to male audiences.”

There may still be social taboos making men reticent about their internal and emotional well-being, FMCG Gurus suggested, further emphasizing the need for wellness brands to position products around mental wellness in an “inclusive, relatable light.” Half (50%) of men told the market research firm that they like to see mood and overall well-being health claims on food and beverage products.

Chronic stress, especially when internalized and managed poorly, is correlated with many of the most prominent health challenges men are seeking solutions for, including hypertension and high cholesterol, sleep issues, poor sexual health, hormonal imbalances, and fatigue.