Do 'natural TRT' supplements like turkesterone actually work?

What did @shad_asiama actually say?

The creator recommends two supplements, fadogia agrestis and turkesterone, as alternatives to prescription TRT. He claims fadogia can raise testosterone by "three to 400 points" in most people, that it causes the testes to visibly grow, and that one patient went from "the low twos" to 700 ng/dL. He also claims turkesterone increases lean muscle and supports recovery. His closing advice is direct: "if you've been thinking about TRT, I need you to stop. Just take these natural plant-based supplements."

That last line is where this stops being enthusiastic supplement promotion and starts being a problem. He is telling people with potentially clinically low testosterone to skip a medical evaluation and buy something through his link instead.

Does the science back this up?

For fadogia agrestis, the honest answer is: not in humans, not even close. The evidence base is almost entirely rodent studies, and the results there are mixed enough that researchers have flagged serious safety concerns before efficacy is even established.

The most-cited animal study (Yakubu et al., 2005, Asian Journal of Andrology) showed increased testosterone in rats at certain doses, but the same research group later published data showing hepatotoxicity and organ stress at higher doses. There are no peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials in humans demonstrating the 300-400 ng/dL testosterone increases the creator describes. That figure is not in the literature. It appears to be anecdotal, possibly from the creator's own client observations, which is not the same thing as evidence.

For turkesterone, a naturally occurring ecdysteroid, one human study exists worth citing: Isenmann et al., 2021, Food and Chemical Toxicology. It found no significant difference in muscle mass or strength between the turkesterone and placebo groups over 10 weeks. The compound has theoretical mechanistic interest, but the human trial data does not support the marketing claims surrounding it.

What did they get wrong (or right)?

The creator gets credit for correctly pronouncing the actual pharmacological category here. Fadogia agrestis does work through a luteinizing hormone pathway in animal models, meaning it stimulates endogenous testosterone production rather than replacing it exogenously. That is a real mechanistic distinction from TRT, and it is worth knowing.

What he gets badly wrong is the magnitude and reliability of the effect. The claim that "most people" will see a 300-400 ng/dL increase is not supported by any published human data. One patient anecdote, which he himself calls an outlier, does not become a typical outcome through repetition. The visible testicular growth claim is similarly unsupported in human studies, though in rodents, gonadal changes have been observed, often alongside toxicity signals.

Telling someone with low testosterone to skip TRT and buy supplements through a link is clinically irresponsible. Hypogonadism has real health consequences, including bone density loss, cardiovascular risk, and metabolic dysfunction. A supplement with no human efficacy data is not a substitute for a physician's evaluation.

What should you actually know?

If your testosterone is genuinely low, the only way to know is a blood test interpreted by a clinician, not a TikTok benchmark. "Low twos" and "700 range" are numbers that need clinical context: age, symptoms, time of draw, and SHBG levels all matter.

Fadogia agrestis is not regulated as a drug by the FDA. It is sold as a dietary supplement, which means no pre-market efficacy or safety review is required. The hepatotoxicity signals in animal studies have not been adequately studied in humans, so the risk profile is genuinely unknown, not proven safe.

Turkesterone is similarly unregulated and the best available human RCT showed no significant benefit. If you are spending money on these products based on this video, you are taking on unknown risk for benefits that have not been demonstrated in human trials. Consult an actual clinician before making changes to your hormone health approach.