Shilajit is marketed to men as a natural way to raise testosterone, sharpen drive, and push through fatigue. The reality is narrower and more interesting. A handful of small human trials point to modest, specific effects, several of them run on the same manufacturer-supplied material and rarely repeated by independent labs. This page sets out what those studies genuinely found, what they cannot tell you, and where the popular claims run ahead of the evidence.
Educational content, not medical advice. Talk to a qualified clinician before taking shilajit, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, take medication, or have a health condition.
Testosterone: one small trial, read carefully
The testosterone story rests almost entirely on a single study. In it, middle-aged men took purified shilajit for three months and saw measurable rises in testosterone and related hormones against placebo. That is a real, randomised, double-blind result, and it is the strongest single design in this whole area. But it is one study, it published statistical significance without effect sizes, the product was a standardised commercial material, and independent reviewers describe the evidence as resting on one small, likely manufacturer-linked trial. None of that makes it worthless. It does mean the honest label is preliminary, not proven.
In healthy men aged 45 to 55, purified shilajit 250 mg twice daily for 90 days significantly raised total testosterone, free testosterone and DHEAS versus placebo, while LH and FSH stayed stable, but this comes from a single small manufacturer-linked trial with no published effect sizes and no independent replication. [Pandit 2016, Andrologia] Preliminary evidence
A second, older study in men with low sperm counts also recorded a testosterone rise, but it was an open-label fertility trial with no control group, so the hormone change cannot be pinned on shilajit with any confidence.
In men with low sperm counts, processed shilajit 100 mg twice daily for 90 days raised serum testosterone by about 23.5 percent from baseline, but the study had no placebo or control group, so the rise cannot be attributed to shilajit with confidence. [Biswas 2010, Andrologia] Preliminary evidence
Fertility and sperm quality
The most eye-catching numbers in the shilajit literature come from that same fertility study. Men with low sperm counts improved on several semen measures over 90 days, alongside a fall in a marker of oxidative stress in semen. Product pages love to headline the sperm-count figure. What they leave out is that the trial had no placebo arm and no control group, and that fewer than 30 men completed it. Within-group before-and-after designs cannot rule out chance, lifestyle changes, or a return toward normal on their own. Read the number as a hopeful single result, not settled fact.
In men with low sperm counts, processed shilajit 100 mg twice daily for 90 days improved total sperm count by about 61 percent along with motility and normal sperm shape and lowered a semen oxidative-stress marker, in a single uncontrolled open-label trial. [Biswas 2010, Andrologia] Preliminary evidence
Shilajit protected sperm production against cadmium-induced damage in male mice, which supports an antioxidant mechanism but does not translate into a proven fertility benefit for men. [Mishra 2018, Andrologia] Insufficient evidence
Energy, fatigue, and exercise
Energy is the effect men report most often, and it is also the one with the most defensible human trial. An independent, placebo-controlled study at a US university found that shilajit helped active young men hold on to muscular strength under fatigue and lowered a marker of connective-tissue breakdown. Note the framing: this was fatigue resistance and recovery, not a raw strength gain and not a stimulant hit. The benefit showed up mainly in the more fatigable subgroup.
In an independent placebo-controlled trial, 500 mg per day for 8 weeks helped recreationally active young men retain muscular strength under fatigue and lowered a connective-tissue breakdown marker, a fatigue-resistance signal rather than a raw strength gain. [Keller 2019, JISSN] Moderate evidence
A smaller study looked at gene activity in muscle rather than performance. It is worth knowing about, but it measured biology in a test rather than anything you would feel in the gym, and the animal work behind the popular mitochondrial claims has not been shown in people.
Eight weeks of oral shilajit changed the activity of a cluster of collagen and connective-tissue genes in human muscle in a very small study of 16 men with no placebo group, which shows gene-expression changes rather than measured performance gains. [Das 2016, J Med Food] Preliminary evidence
Shilajit reduced fatigue behaviour and supported mitochondrial function in a rat model of chronic fatigue, an animal finding that has not been demonstrated in people. [Surapaneni 2012, J Ethnopharmacol] Insufficient evidence
Libido and sexual function
Libido is one of the most searched shilajit topics for men, and it has the least direct evidence. There is no dedicated, placebo-controlled trial showing shilajit raises male libido or erectile function. The one sexual-function trial on oral shilajit was carried out in women, not men, so it cannot support a male claim. Any libido effect is an inference from the small testosterone signal at best, and shilajit is not a substitute for medically prescribed treatment of low libido or erectile dysfunction.
No dedicated placebo-controlled human trial shows shilajit raises male libido or erectile function; any libido effect is inferred at best from the small testosterone signal. [Pandit 2016, Andrologia] Insufficient evidence
Safety comes before benefit
The single most important decision for any man considering shilajit is not dose or timing, it is purity. Because the raw material concentrates whatever sits in its host rock, it can carry lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and thallium. Buy only a purified product with a recent third-party heavy-metal test, and treat raw resin of unknown origin with caution.
Raw or unpurified shilajit can concentrate lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and thallium from its host rock, and a 2025 analysis found some finished supplements contained more thallium than the crude material. [Kamgar 2025, BMC Chemistry] Moderate evidence
The US Department of Defense Operation Supplement Safety states there is little reliable evidence to support claims that shilajit can enhance energy, vitality, stamina, endurance, and mental performance, and flags heavy-metal contamination as a primary concern. [OPSS, US DoD] Insufficient evidence
What the research does not support
- Shilajit as a proven testosterone booster. One small, likely manufacturer-linked trial is a preliminary signal, not established fact, and says nothing about young men or those with clinically low testosterone.
- Big strength or muscle-mass gains. The best human trial showed retained strength under fatigue, not hypertrophy.
- A direct fix for low libido or erectile dysfunction. No male-specific trial exists.
- The 40 percent more energy and natural TRT claims. These trace to marketing and animal work, not a human trial.
- The idea that all shilajit is safe and equivalent. Benefits, if any, apply only to purified, third-party-tested material.
If you decide shilajit is worth a trial, do it with clear expectations: a possible, modest support for vitality and recovery, judged over 8 to 12 weeks, ideally bracketed by bloodwork if testosterone is your goal. For the detail behind these studies, see our science overview. For dosing and method, read how to take shilajit, and before you buy, check our buying guide on purity and third-party testing.
Educational content, not medical advice. Talk to a qualified clinician before taking shilajit, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, take medication, or have a health condition.
References
- Pandit S, et al. Clinical evaluation of purified shilajit on testosterone levels in healthy volunteers. Andrologia. 2016;48(5):570-5. PMID 26395129
- Biswas TK, et al. Clinical evaluation of spermatogenic activity of processed shilajit in oligospermia. Andrologia. 2010;42(1):48-56. PMID 20078516
- Keller JL, et al. The effects of shilajit supplementation on fatigue-induced decreases in muscular strength. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2019;16(1):3. PMID 30728074
- Das A, et al. The human skeletal muscle transcriptome in response to oral shilajit supplementation. J Med Food. 2016;19(7):701-9. PMID 27414521
- Surapaneni DK, et al. Shilajit attenuates behavioral symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. J Ethnopharmacol. 2012;143(1):91-9. PMID 22771318
- Mishra RK, et al. Profertility effects of shilajit on cadmium-induced infertility in male mice. Andrologia. 2018. DOI 10.1111/and.13064
- Kamgar E, et al. Quantifying thallium in shilajit and its supplements. BMC Chemistry. 2025. PMID 39827344
- Operation Supplement Safety (US DoD). Shilajit as a dietary supplement ingredient. opss.org
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