Mars Men Review

Testosterone declines with age; it’s an unavoidable fact. Up to 40% of men will experience clinical testosterone deficiency in their lifetimes, unless they do something about it.1 Testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is one route, but it’s fraught with potential side effects and may be unnecessarily intense for many men with only a slight deficiency. That’s where supplementation can fill the gap.

Now, it’s true that most testosterone boosters on the market are lackluster. Many use ingredients that lack scientific research, and most of the brands using good ingredients provide them at doses far below what research indicates might actually work.

Mars Men is one of the rare testosterone-boosting supplements with clinically relevant doses of well-researched ingredients, though some of those doses might be high enough to introduce problems of their own. In this review, we’ll break down how Mars Men earned a top recommendation in our complete guide to testosterone boosters, and show you which alternatives might be a better, safer choice.

Mars Men contains enough clinically researched ingredients delivered at research-level doses to reliably boost testosterone for many men. However, it lacks one of the most thoroughly researched testosterone-boosting botanicals, and some of its doses are simply too high, introducing an unnecessary risk of side effects. Nonetheless, it’s a fine product at a reasonable enough price and is a top recommendation of ours under certain circumstances (particularly for whose who want or need to avoid ashwagandha). It’s not our most highly recommended testosterone booster — products like Testosterone Support by Innerbody Labs and Genius Test would are likely to be more effective and safe. Check out our complete guide to testosterone boosters for the full breakdown.

At Innerbody Research, we carefully scrutinize every product and service we review, and our experience researching and reviewing testosterone support products is second to none. Over the better part of a decade, we’ve spent countless thousands of hours poring over scientific literature surrounding testosterone and all of the over-the-counter and prescription interventions to ameliorate deficiency.

For this review alone, we spent another 180 hours reviewing research and competitor formulas. We also interacted extensively with Mars Men, testing its customer service, ordering the product, and trying it for ourselves. Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy and will continue to be monitored for updates by our editorial team.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

To evaluate Mars Men, we applied the same set of criteria we use whenever we scrutinize a testosterone support supplement. These include effectiveness and safety, both established by comparing ingredients and their doses to the available human clinical research. When human research is lacking, we err on the side of caution, recognizing that evidence of safety or efficacy in animals doesn’t necessarily translate to humans. For testosterone support supplements, it’s all the more important to include only ingredients that have evidence in human trials, as there are enough such ingredients that there isn’t any good reason to opt for something that only has evidence in animal models.

We also compared Mars Men’s cost and convenience measures when building our overall rating, which you can see toward the top of this page.

Let’s dive into each criterion to see how Mars Men fared.

Effectiveness

Mars Men has the potential to outperform most testosterone boosters on the market, with the exception of one or two that are undeniably superior for one reason or another. Its strengths include clinically relevant doses of five ingredients with strong evidence for testosterone support, including:

• Tongkat ali
• Fenugreek
• Vitamin D3
• Boron
• Zinc

We’ll break down the research supporting these ingredients in our section on how Mars Men works, but suffice it to say that these five ingredients boast more impressive research than almost anything else you could put in a testosterone booster.

However, one ingredient, which may have more research supporting it than any other, is missing: ashwagandha.

Ashwagandha has been shown in multiple studies to help improve testosterone levels and symptoms of low testosterone. For example, a study from 2015 using 600mg per day showed marked increases in strength performance, reductions in post-workout soreness, and improved serum testosterone compared to placebo.2 Another study using the same dose, this time from 2022, saw improvements in both serum testosterone and sexual function.3 Both studies used a branded, standardized ashwagandha extract called KSM-66, which has become the standard for ashwagandha among the best testosterone supplements.

What’s frustrating is that Mars Men could have made plenty of room for 600mg of KSM-66 ashwagandha by simply providing fenugreek and tongkat ali at their most successful doses, rather than overdosing them to try to outdo competitors with similar formulas.

Just compare the formulas from Mars Men, Innerbody Labs, and Genius Test, keeping in mind that Innerbody Labs and Genius achieve their doses with just four capsules each, as opposed to Mars Men’s five-capsule regimen.

You’ll also notice that certain aspects of Mars Men’s ingredient list lack specifications that could align them better with established science. For example, fenugreek research focuses heavily on saponin content, but Mars Men doesn’t use a fenugreek extract with a standardized concentration of saponins.4

All this paints a picture of a product that’s got good potential, but that lags behind its competitors and some others in a few key areas.

Safety

Mars Men maintains a safety rating that’s slightly above average, thanks mostly to its reliance on ingredients with good safety profiles in research. It doesn’t reach for ingredients with lesser profiles you’ll see in other testosterone boosters, like Fadogia agrestis. And while its lack of ashwagandha negatively impacts efficacy, there’s some evidence that this exclusion could improve the product’s safety profile for anyone with thyroid issues. Indeed, ashwagandha has been linked to increased thyroid activity in a couple of studies, including one that used the botanical as a treatment for hypothyroidism.5 A man suffering from hyperthyroidism or using medication to manage thyroid hormone levels could potentially experience adverse effects from taking ashwagandha.

That’s not a particularly large segment of the population, with only about 0.7-1.4% of the population suffering from hyperthyroidism.6 But it’s not nothing, either.

Where Mars Men falls short on safety is in its dosing of two ingredients and its failure to stick with a branded extract of a third. Specifically, we’re talking about vitamin D3, zinc, and shilajit.

Mars Men’s formula delivers 100mcg of D3, which is exactly the tolerable supplemental upper limit set by the NIH.7 If you get even a little vitamin D3 from fortified foods, other vitamins and supplements, or even just too much sunlight, you could experience adverse effects. The zinc dose isn’t as egregious, with 30mg being a whole 10mg shy of the NIH’s upper limit for zinc,8 but it’s still pushing the limit further than we'd recommend. By comparison, Innerbody Labs Testosterone Support uses a safer and more conservative 25mcg of D3 and 25mg of zinc. It also includes copper alongside its zinc dose to offset zinc-induced copper deficiency — a safety measure Mars Men doesn’t take.9

Finally, there’s the shilajit issue. Shilajit is a mineral exudite extracted from a wide variety of high-altitude mountain locations and processed in extremely different ways, depending on the region and manufacturer. We have a comprehensive guide to shilajit supplements where we take time to appreciate its potential to help with testosterone levels while also warning men of the pitfalls of using unstandardized extracts. The most dangerous of these is heavy metal contamination, and to Mars Men’s credit, third-party test results reveal safe levels on the heavy metal front.10 But we’d still prefer to see a standardized shilajit powder like the PrimaVie shilajit in Genius Test.

Cost

Mars Men occupies a relatively comfortable middle ground on cost, with a lower price than a half dozen or so comparable testosterone boosters — for example, Hunter Test, Nugenix Total T-Maxx, and even Innerbody Labs Testosterone Support if you only consider one-time purchase prices. But you’ll want to continue taking a testosterone booster for as long as you want your levels to remain healthy, so a product that offers things like bulk and subscription discounts would be preferable.

Mars Men runs on a subscription-only platform, with no option for one-time purchases. There’s no penalty for canceling, so it’s not that big of a knock, but it also means its $59 price point is static. By comparison, Innerbody Labs Testosterone Support costs $67 on a monthly subscription, but just $47/month with semiannual shipping intervals. That’s $14 less expensive per month, or $144 less per year, than Mars Men for a supplement that, as we’ve discussed above, is both safer and more effective than Mars Men.

Here’s how that plays out:

As you can see, Genius Test could save you an extra $12 per year compared to Innerbody Labs, but the latter remains the superior supplement, worth well more than an extra $12 annually.

Convenience

Mars Men doesn’t have any significant inconveniences about it, but various things chip away at its convenience rating.

Its five-capsule regimen is one. Most testosterone boosters fit their recommended doses into four capsules or fewer. A minor inconvenience, but one worth noting.

Another ding here comes from the forced subscription system. It’s inconvenient to have no choice in the matter and to have to cancel a subscription if you decide something isn’t right for you. What’s worse, the system has no flexibility for delivery intervals and no opportunities for additional bulk savings.

An additional little inconvenience comes from some disingenuous pricing practices. For example, you might see an offer on the Mars Men website promising to lock you into a discounted price of $59 for life if you act now. But we’ve been following Mars Men since it hit the market, and it has always cost $59. The site and its marketing materials will tell you you’re locking in some lifetime low price, but $59 is just the price. Always has been. If you catch the company during a sale, you might save a little more on your first month, but that’s the best deal you’re liable to find.

Finally — and this isn’t necessarily Mars Man’s fault — the company has some counterfeit products circulating on websites like eBay, where the Mars Men name is on the label but the formula is pure trash. Watch out for those by buying only from Mars Men directly.

Mars Men is a company offering an eponymous testosterone booster containing eight ingredients, most of which have good evidence supporting their potential to improve testosterone levels in men. It’s currently the company’s only product.

Specifically, its formula contains:

• Fenugreek: 1,000mg
• Tongkat ali: 1,000mg
• Vitamin D3: 100mcg
• Zinc: 30mg
• Boron: 4mg
• Vitamin K2: 100mcg
• L-Taurine: 675mg
• Shilajit: 400mg

These ingredients make up a five-capsule dose that you take each morning, ideally with food.

Mars Men company reputation

Mars Men is accredited with the Better Business Bureau, where it holds an A rating. It has only around 30 reviews at the time of this writing, resulting in a paltry 1 star out of a possible 5. The picture on Trustpilot is a little sunnier and has more data behind it. There, over 2,000 reviews give Mars Men an average rating of 3.7 stars out of 5.

Negative reviews from either site focus mainly on the automatic subscription model, which seems to trick many customers into an auto-renewal they didn’t realize they’d signed up for at checkout. And some have pointed out issues with cancellation not taking effect after they tried to stop future shipments.

If Mars Men could simply offer a one-time purchase option, it seems like most of these issues would resolve themselves, which is why the subscription system, as it’s currently laid out, cost the company some points in our convenience criterion.

Mars Men works by employing several ingredients with good research supporting their potential to improve men’s testosterone levels. Not every ingredient here works quite the same way to boost testosterone, and they have varying degrees of research quality and quantity. Still, the formula remains one of the better ones on the market, with only a few exceptional alternatives that can outperform it.

Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients in the Mars Men formula to see what scientific research supports their use.

Who is Mars Men for, and who should look elsewhere?

Mars Men is suitable for any man with mild testosterone deficiency or men with numbers closing in on a deficiency, but still subclinical. That latter group would do well to consider a testosterone support supplement to help stave off an inevitable deficiency that would arise with age.

That said, Mars Men likely isn’t the best choice for most men, as it lacks a critical botanical with good testosterone-boosting evidence behind it (ashwagandha), some of its ingredient doses are unverified due to missing extract standardization, and other doses are high enough to pose a danger alongside other supplements or even certain fortified foods.

We recommend Mars Men to a small subset of men who, for one reason or another, have decided they don’t want to take ashwagandha.

If you suspect you may have low testosterone, you may have noticed some specific symptoms of the disorder. The most common indicators of low testosterone include:26

• Low libido
• Erectile and other sexual dysfunction
• Diminished energy
• Difficulty losing fat
• Difficulty gaining muscle
• Depression
• Mood swings
• Brain fog
• Hot flashes

If you notice one or more of these symptoms affecting your day-to-day quality of life, it would be worth getting your testosterone levels checked to help you diagnose a clinical or subclinical deficiency.

A clinical testosterone deficiency is typically identified by two consecutive measurements of total testosterone at or below 300ng/dL, though that can be adjusted at the discretion of a urologist if you present any specific symptoms of a deficiency.27 Men in the mid-to-high 300s might be considered subclinical, as their levels are technically normal but on the very low end of normal.

Most online TRT clinics can provide at-home testing kits that allow you to draw a small amount of blood and send it off to the lab, usually with a low-pain finger-prick or painless shoulder-prick device. Results can come back in as little as 48 hours, and these same clinics connect you with affiliated physicians who can get you set up with a prescription treatment if you want one. Or you can go the supplement route and see if that works first, with Mars Men being among your options.

While most of the ingredients in Mars Men should be safe for most men, there are certain dosing and extract quality issues that make it a less safe choice than competitive products from Genius, Roman, and Innerbody Labs, among others.

The chief safety issues with Mars Men are:

Mars Men’s testosterone booster remains its only product, and it’s available on a subscription basis only. That means there are no one-off purchases. This is important to emphasize, as a lot of the negative reviews Mars Men gets online come from customers who didn’t realize they were signing up for a subscription when they checked out and were then surprised to get billed after the first month.

The price of a single month’s worth of Mars Men is $59. The company’s website and marketing materials will claim that the $59 price point represents a lifetime discount off its regular price, but this is a fiction. For as long as we’ve covered the company, the price has been $59. Any assertion of a "lifetime discount" at that price point is a marketing ploy to create urgency.

Shipping from Mars Men is free on your first order, but subsequent orders incur a $6 shipping charge in the U.S. That’s frustrating for a system that doesn’t offer higher quantities per shipment. Even if buying in bulk didn’t unlock any additional discounts, creating something like a free-shipping threshold could allow men to save some money over the long haul. Instead, you’re left paying an extra $72/year in shipping charges.

One logistical area where Mars Men excels is in its guarantee, which offers you your money back for up to 90 days. That’s definitely longer than the 30 days offered by some other elite brands.

If you have low testosterone levels, there are really only two places you can turn for significant help. Things like diet and exercise are important, but they aren’t liable to be as impactful as your other options, namely testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) and supplements. Here, let’s take a closer look at some competitive supplements that may be better options than Mars Men and talk a little bit about TRT, should you and your doctor feel that prescription help is warranted.