Maude Libido (with Nootropics)

Maude is a brand founded in 2018 by Mexico-born Eva Goicochea. She worked in healthcare and then spent ten years working with modern-thinking companies. Her time in those fields led her to realize the sexual wellness category of products needed massive updates from the outdated and non-inclusivity. Partnered with Dakota Fanning as an investor and Co-Creative Director, Maude has begun to grow into the new norm when it comes to sexual health products.

The two items sold by Maude that are garnering a lot of attention are their libido gummies. There is a male and female version of these. I can’t wait for there to be a xe/xer version for people like me. These versions are designed with blends of ingredients to give you a boost to your libido if things seem stagnant or that you just don’t have the drive you used to. These ingredients are all herbs, minerals, or common amino acids that have great benefits alone, but when combined they should prove to help your desire to have sex increase.

These questions really come down to another question: why has your libido dropped?

It could be that you’re eating poorly, sleep is bad, or your partner and you have been together for a while and things just aren’t as exciting as they used to be. Libido products can take the edge off some of those negatives to give you enough of a boost to get things going. Fixing your diet and sleep will be the most effective lifestyle changes that can be done to help with libido, but supplementing with different products can be of secondary help. No product is going to be a total cure-all for a lessened sex drive, but something like a libido booster is absolutely worth the money to try. A big factor of the efficacy of libido boosting products comes down to what’s actually in the products and at what dose.

As an additional note: there is a nootropic ingredient in one of their blends that would put these gummies in the nootropic category as well. Nootropics are products that can help you increase your thinking ability or memory retention.

The actual ingredient breakdown for these Nootropic Libido Gummies share on some ingredients and also differ. Both versions share a lot of the same ingredients, such as their main complex: the maude x ASYSTEM Libido Complex. This is a unique blend that consists of l-citrulline, l-arginine, l-theanine, boron, and caffeine. Additional shared ingredients between the male and female versions are: the S7 Blend and the Ocean Mineral Blend.

The goals of all the ingredients in both the male and female versions are of blood flow, hormone balance/optimization, and direct libido boosting. The blood flow aspects are to make sure the mechanical functionality for men and women have the blood supply to work properly (erections and lubrication). The hormone balance/optimization is going to try to make sure our sex hormones are where they need to be. The libido boosting ingredients are self-explanatory.

The maude x ASYSTEM Libido Complex

In both the male and female versions there are 81mg of this complex. The complex consists of L-citrulline, l-arginine, l-theanine, boron citrate, and caffeine. The theanine is the ingredient in this mix that’s going to be the nootropic factor. The citrulline and arginine will help with increasing nitric oxide which opens blood vessels to allow more blood flow which could help with erections. The boron citrate will assist in converting total testosterone to free testosterone which is the “active” testosterone. Studies do show a correlation from low testosterone to poor libido. Boron also helps with the metabolism of minerals.

S7 Blend

The S7 is a blend of seven different plant ingredients that studies have shown to increase nitric oxide by 230%. There are no nitrates in S7 which is a big selling point as many people have aversions to nitrates. Only a small dose of 50mg is needed to get these amazing benefits.

Ocean Mineral Complex

This mineral complex isn’t a direct list of straight minerals, rather it’s different plant matters that contain high levels of minerals that we rarely get in our diets. Irish Sea Moss contains 92 of the 102 minerals that our bodies need. Burdock Root contains things like Calcium, Iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium. Bladderwack has high amounts of iodine which is hugely responsibly for thyroid function. Poor thyroid function is a big player in some female hormone imbalances.

Tribulus

Supplementation won’t actually raise testosterone levels (much to many user’s dismay), but it does help with nitric oxide release. There are virtually no studies that show a significant increase in testosterone, but there are desirable effects that come from this ingredient.

Pine Pollen

Testosterone has been found in the actual pollen and there’s a rough estimate of 10g of the pollen containing 0.8mcg of testosterone. There haven’t been any studies, but there are anecdotal stories of its effectiveness.

Zinc

Zinc is probably most widely known for its immune boosting properties, but here it’s used due to its effects with erectile dysfunction. Additionally, it helps balance testosterone levels and supports a healthy prostate. The prostate uses androgens to maintain male sex characteristics

Magnesium

Magnesium is essential for producing NO (nitric oxide) which is going to aide in producing and maintaining erections.

Fenugreek

Fenugreek balances hormones which will improve libido and possibly reduce irritability. Fenugreek also has a litany of other effects like: promotion of healthy skin, digestion improvement, blood sugar management, increased breast milk production, and potentially weight management.

Pine Bark Extract

Sometimes called Pycnogenol (if that specific type is used), maritime pine bark extract has many constituents that improve general health as well as sexual health. Some of these constituent work on increasing blood flow to the female genitals which makes it easier for physical arousal to occur. This is going to be the female version of getting the functional tools in working order.

While the ingredient choices for Maude Libido seems great for both versions, the biggest drawback is the dosage amounts. The maude x ASYSTEM Libido Complex is only 81mg of 5 different ingredients. The ingredients are listed in order from most to least mg. That means you could be getting something like 40mg citrulline, 20mg arginine, 10mg theanine, 6mg boron, 5mg caffeine. That’s not exact but it’s a possibility and probably not far off. 5mg of caffeine is going to be useless as the amounts of everything except the boron. Generally a clinical dose of citrulline is 3000mg. Theanine is usually taken in the 50-200mg range. I just can’t see anything effective coming from this dosage. The Pine Bark extract has a recommended dosage of 100mg 3 times per day. At 20mg, you’re taking 6.6% of what the usual dosages are. Fenugreek comes in 500mg pills if you’re taking the standalone. I won’t belabor the point as you get the idea.

** The S7 blend is dosed appropriately**

There simply isn’t enough gas in the tank to take you anywhere on these gummies.

If all of the above benefits intrigued you, but you’re let down by the lackluster and inefficient dosages from Maude, I’d recommend the following products:

**Prices as of 10/19/2022 – May change over time**

• (Female) Irwin Steel-Libido Pink for Women $24.99
• (Male) Irwin Steel-Libido Red (Magnum Blood Flow) $22.99
• (Male) Hi Tech Pharmaceuticals Testosterone 21 $49.95
• (Female) MD Science Lab Max Desire $39.99