The 'Gains' all focused in the trouser department
There are a couple of unusual things about TestoGain from Douglas Labs.
One of those is that it is so anonymous (considering the size of Douglas Labs). In years of researching and testing testosterone boosters, I only stumbled over it by chance and decided to look into it.
Another is Douglas Labs themselves. Rarely have I seen a supplement company doing test boosters who come across as so pharmaceutical.
The way they are promoting TestoGain is also unusual. The marketing material is very scientific looking. As is the product. Check this out as a description, apparently the product was;
created to support the optimal function of specific hormones through the use of hormone specific adaptogens, hormone specific agonists and hormone specific functional mimetics
Phew, wordy. They are certainly appealing to the high brow end of the low test market with this one.
They might have the laboratory background, but does that translate into a quality t booster?
Sadly their Hormone Specific Formulation™ isn’t all that specific at all. It’s wrapped in a proprietary blend which obscures the dosages of each individual ingredient. This is a standard FDA workaround, we hate it. Let’s have a look at the ingredients and see what their picks are.
First of all, let’s get stuck into the scores.
As already noted, the formula is obscured in a proprietary blend. This can present a problem if the ingredients are all out-and-out test boosting superstars and we just need to know how much of each of them is present.
This isn’t the case with this formula, it is wildly unbalanced, concentrating entirely on herbal libido boosters. Many are herbs from traditional eastern medicine, some have a good clinical pedigree.
However some of these really do not, you can read the details further down the review.
And the inclusion of tribulus is always a problem for us, it is now a well proven dud – so why is it still in there? It implies the manufacturer either isn’t keeping up to date with research or is just too mean to change the formula (and the labels, bottles, website etc).
No minerals, vitamins or amino acids present. No estrogen control at all. Nothing for the feel-good factor or to help you absorb the other ingredients. A real one-trick pony.
OK, it’s not the most expensive. But then it’s not cheap either and it is utterly one dimensional. It simply isn’t worth the price tag.
Wrapping this formula up in a proprietary blend is not justified. There’s no need to do it.
Deliberately making all the rhetoric around the product overtly pharmaceutical and technical when it’s really just libido enhancing natural herbs all seems slightly deceitful too, especially when you consider the lack of clinical support in some of them.
On the other hand they are very professional in the way everything is presented and we could come up with nothing to suggest they are not a trustworthy operation.
Reviews are few and far between. Amazon has half a dozen, two with positive things to say (which look genuine). Two very brief ones giving it 5 stars which don’t look genuine at all.
Incidentally, do you know how to spot dodgy Amazon reviews?
Always click on the link to the users profile, if they give a very short, glowing review which lacks any specific product detail and that is their ONLY review, then treat it with extreme suspicion.
If there were tons of dubious reviews I’d be marking down the trustworthiness of the company in the Trust category. Only two isn’t a problem, nobody who goes on a program of engineered reviews publishes only two of them.
The reviews on the site www.yourhormones.com, which is owned by Douglas Labs, only has 3 testimonials on it. One from all from way back in 2014, two from 2016 including a menopausal lady (which is very unusual).
Not wonderful testimony. But not awful either, there’s no real bad press as such.
The company itself is impressive. It’s not often you see an outfit quite as well established or with such a global reach selling a product such as this.
Offices in USA, Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Chile, Philippines, Taiwan. Long established.
A very credible enterprise. Just glad I don’t work there.
The company are very keen to stress that you should take it under the direction of a healthcare advisor. Whilst this is naturally good advice, it’s also slightly unrealistic that you are going to involve your doctor in this. It also eggs up the idea that it’s a pharmaceutical product when in fact it’s simply a dietary supplement.
They suggest you take 2 capsules a day with food for 1 to 2 weeks, then up it to 4 capsules a day for 2 to 4 months. Then bizarrely drop it back down again.
We can’t find any reports of side effects (other than one review claiming it caused migraines – definitely a genuine reviewer on Amazon, but these ingredients causing migraines seems unlikely in our opinion).
You can buy it on the manufacturer’s site for $52.50 (they have a well executed e-commerce site) or they also link to www.testogain.com. I assume this used to be the product specific site back in 2012 when the product was launched, now it forwards onto www.yourhormones.com (meaning that www.yourhormones.com is owned by Dougla
On these sites there is no guest checkout, you have to create an account with them. It’s a fairly big form and despite having numerous worldwide locations, they only ship to the USA. So if you are readint this from somewhere else on the planet (it’s a big market Douglas Labs) you’d have to have a freight forwading account set up to get it.
Currently unavailable on Amazon but it must have been at some point as some of the reviews are from verified purchasers.
– Used for many years in Indian traditional medicine as a stress reliever, its effectiveness has survived the jump to western use. The stress hormone cortisol is among one of the worst things that can happen to your testosterone, as it serves to block production. Anything therefore that counters this is pretty invaluable. A study performed on infertile men found that a regular dose of Ashwagandha Root was found to boost testosterone by 40% in just three months. More work needs done on fertile subjects to see if results are similarly impressive, but it’s hard not to be encouraged by such effective results.
– This is another strong aphrodisiac ingredient, but some believe it acts as an aromatase inhibitor. The aromatase enzyme’s job is to convert testosterone into estrogen, so the idea is an anti-aromatase will restrict this process allowing more testosterone to remain in the system. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of evidence out there to suggest that Damiana Leaf does this effectively however and what work has been done mainly relates to lab rats.
Studies suggest Mucuna Pruriens is able to improve our ratio of free testosterone and can also be a rich source of the amino acid levodopa (L-DOPA) a stimulator of testosterone and human growth hormone.
While maca root is considered an aphrodisiac in many cultures and has shown some ability in that area, unlike fenugreek, it’s not dual purpose and will do little or nothing to stimulate hormone levels. This one not strictly a test booster, it’s a libido enhancer.
Sometimes known as Longjack, this ingredient doesn’t do much to help your testosterone but has been shown to help stimulate libido.
A good choice. Panax ginseng is a noted libido enhancer which can help testosterone by regulating blood sugars, balancing insulin and controlling SHBG levels, all things which can hinder healthy testosterone function.
FOr once the inclusion of an ingredient not directly associated with libido enhancement. Siberian Ginseng is often used in place of the more expensive Panax Ginseng … for the simple reason that most people wouldn’t know the difference and just assume they are the same.
TestoGain uses both. Siberian Ginseng is a herb originating from Russia (hence the name) which promoted energy and endurance. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine for anti-fatigue. Clinical backup is patchy, the most positive trials tending to have the poorest clinical methodology.
Ah, the great pretender. Once championed as one of the best testosterone boosters around, clinical trials ultimately proved this plant’s only real use was as a possible mild libido enhancer. Despite this certain brands stick resolutely by the ingredient, which is why it’s still tested from time to time and is consistently shown to have no effect on hormone levels. We might not know how much is in this blend but we can say one thing for sure. However much it is, it is too much. A complete waste.
The one and only ingredient which isn’t classified as a pure libido booster. Muira puama is a tradition aphrodisiac from the Amazonian basin. Once again it doesn’t have a brilliant clinical pedigree, although one trial in erectile function showed positive results.
It’s simply not worth it for the price. The company seem very professional, long established and with a global presence … but the product just doesn’t match up to their slick pharmaceutical image. Far too one-dimensional and the ingredients are not robust enough from a clinical research point of view.
