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Anaphrodisiacs: What Actually Lowers Sex Drive, and What's a Myth

By , author of Sound Mind · Published · How we source

The short answer

An anaphrodisiac is something that lowers sexual desire. It’s the opposite of an aphrodisiac. The herbs and foods sold for this, including hops, chasteberry, spearmint, soy, and saltpeter, have little or no evidence of working in men. The prescription drugs that reliably lower drive do it by cutting testosterone, at a real cost to health. Camphor should never be swallowed: it can cause seizures.

Most anaphrodisiacs have little behind them, the ones that work cost too much, and the best anaphrodisiac is a sound mind.

What does anaphrodisiac mean?

An anaphrodisiac is anything that lowers sexual desire: a food, an herb, a drug, or a habit. The word is the opposite of aphrodisiac, something that raises desire. Some medicines lower desire as a side effect,1 and a few are prescribed for it on purpose, in narrow cases.2

If you’re searching for one, you probably want relief from a drive that seems to run your evenings, ideally in capsule form. That’s a fair thing to want. I’m not a doctor or a therapist, so every claim below has a source in the notes, and each herb comes with the caution printed on its label.

Which anaphrodisiacs actually work?

In men, none of the common herbs or foods has good evidence. The prescription drugs that lower drive do work, but they’re for specific cases, with a doctor, and they carry real costs.

Candidate Lowers drive in men? Caution
Hops No studies in men May cause drowsiness
Chasteberry No evidence Ask first if you take hormone medicines
Spearmint Studied only in women None for men
Soy No: no effect on men’s hormones None
Licorice Evidence conflicts Not with high blood pressure
Saltpeter No: a myth None
Camphor No evidence Never swallow it
SSRIs (prescription) Sometimes; mostly affect orgasm Only with a doctor
Antiandrogens (prescription) Yes, by cutting testosterone Specialists only

Anaphrodisiac herbs and foods

None of these has good evidence of lowering desire in men. Here’s what’s known about each, with the caution its label carries.3

Hops

Hops show up on many lists of natural anaphrodisiacs. But no studies have looked at hops and men’s libido or testosterone.4 Label caution: may cause drowsiness, so avoid alcohol and other sedatives, and take care driving.

Chasteberry (vitex)

Chasteberry has a long folk history as a way to lower desire. No clinical data support that use.5 When 20 healthy men took it for two weeks, their testosterone held steady. Label caution: ask first if you take hormone medicines.

Spearmint

In a small trial in women with polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormone condition, spearmint tea lowered testosterone over a month. It hasn’t been studied in men.6 Label caution: none for men. The US label’s only line covers pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Soy

Soy doesn’t change men’s hormones. This is well established. Two reviews pooled the clinical studies and found no effect of soy or its plant estrogens on men’s testosterone or estrogen.7 Eat it or skip it for other reasons, but don’t count on it to lower your drive.

Licorice

The licorice evidence conflicts. One early report found lower testosterone in men, another found no effect, and a four-week study of 21 men saw no change.8 What’s well established is that regular licorice raises blood pressure. Label caution: not with high blood pressure, low potassium, or heart, kidney, or liver disease.

Saltpeter and camphor: a myth and a real danger

Saltpeter

Saltpeter is potassium or sodium nitrate, long used to preserve meat. The story that it was slipped into soldiers’ food to dampen their drive is a myth. It has no effect on desire.9

Camphor

Camphor deserves a plain warning: never swallow it. It’s sold for use on the skin, and swallowed, it can cause seizures.10

Men do take it to lower their drive. In a hospital series of 30 severe camphor poisonings in Iran, lowering libido was the main reason in about half the cases, and 4 in 10 patients had seizures.11 No human study shows that it lowers desire. Its label says external use only, call poison control if it’s swallowed, and keep it away from eyes and broken skin.

Anaphrodisiac drugs and pills for men

A few prescription drugs do lower drive, but none is a simple libido pill. Each one belongs in a doctor’s office, with its tradeoffs on the table. Never start, stop, or change one on your own.

SSRIs

SSRIs are a common class of antidepressants, and sexual side effects are common with them. Mostly, though, they affect orgasm. In placebo-controlled trials, SSRIs clearly raised orgasm problems, while the drop in desire was smaller and not statistically significant.12 In animal research, serotonin works mainly as a brake on sexual response.13 For compulsive sexual behavior, guidelines put therapy first and name SSRIs as one of two medicines worth discussing.14

Naltrexone

The other medicine guidelines name is naltrexone, which works on the habit’s reward. It blocks the brain’s opioids, which may stop rewards from triggering dopamine and help the habit’s pull fade.15 In a 2026 trial of 80 people, it did about as well as fluoxetine, an SSRI, though the trial had no placebo group.16 In a small earlier study, about half the men felt tired on it, and symptoms partly came back after they stopped.17

Antiandrogens

These drugs lower testosterone, and desire falls with it.18 They’re the one class that reliably works as an anaphrodisiac. Guidelines reserve them for paraphilic disorders, a specific diagnosis, under specialist care with bone-density checks.19

The price shows up in men treated for prostate cancer, whose testosterone is shut down on purpose. They lose bone, muscle, energy, and sexual function,20 they have more fractures,21 and their risk of depression rises.22 A strong drive, on its own, doesn’t qualify anyone for these drugs.

Is there a safe anaphrodisiac supplement?

No supplement has been shown to lower drive in men, or to treat compulsion.23 A few have fair evidence for things that make the work harder, like anxiety, but that’s a different question.24

Watch for products that push the other way. Mucuna, sold for testosterone, motivation, and “dopamine,” contains levodopa, a Parkinson’s drug.25 Prescription levodopa and drugs like it carry label warnings about stronger sexual urges. Those warnings come from patients, not from healthy men taking a supplement, so read them as a precaution.26 Anything sold to raise your drive points the wrong way too.

The best anaphrodisiac is a sound mind

Most men who want an anaphrodisiac don’t have too much drive. They have too little say over it.

Researchers in Croatia found high desire and lost control in separate groups of survey respondents.27 Doctors diagnose the problem pattern by lost control and harm, and the diagnosis sets no ceiling on desire.28 That’s why every bottle on this page misses. Each one aims at desire, and the trouble is elsewhere: in urges that win the argument, and the shame that follows them.

By a sound mind, this site means a clear view of your own loop and a plan for the hours it usually wins. No bottle supplies that. The six levers in how to lower your libido without lowering testosterone do, from cutting cues to a fixed bedtime. For the moment an urge arrives, use urge surfing.

Try this now

Check your shelf before you add to it. It takes about five minutes.

  1. Gather everything you take: prescriptions, supplements, pre-workouts, sleep aids, and anything you use now and then.
  2. Read each label. Look for mucuna (also listed as Mucuna pruriens, L-dopa, or levodopa), and for anything sold for testosterone, “drive,” or “dopamine.”
  3. Mark anything you started around the time your drive changed.
  4. If you find a supplement sold to raise your drive, set it aside. It points the wrong way.
  5. If a prescription worries you, don’t stop it. Write it down for your doctor or pharmacist.
  6. If an anaphrodisiac is sitting in an online cart, empty it. Write down what you hoped it would fix, such as late nights or stress, and pick one free change aimed at that for tonight.

What should be on your shelf instead?

Very little. A healthy shelf is short or empty, and you can name the reason for anything on it. No bottle there is sold to raise your drive, and none claims to kill it. If you take a prescription that affects sex, your doctor knows, and you’ve talked through what to watch for.

Your drive is still there, and your body is as strong as it was. Your evenings follow a plan you wrote, and when an urge shows up, you ride it out without reaching for anything. That approach costs nothing and carries no warning label. The free first chapter of Sound Mind is where to start building it.

When to get more help

  • If someone has swallowed camphor, call poison control or your local emergency number now.29
  • If your drive has shifted, up or down, see a doctor before you buy anything. Testosterone and prolactin are the standard blood tests, and a thyroid check may be added.30
  • If you take a medicine that acts on dopamine, such as a drug for Parkinson’s disease or restless legs, or aripiprazole (Abilify), and your urges have grown stronger, tell your prescriber. Their labels list increased or compulsive sexual urges.31 Don’t stop the medicine yourself.
  • If you’ve given the free changes a month and the loop still wins most weeks, or it’s straining your relationship or your work, see a therapist who treats compulsive sexual behavior. In the guidelines, therapy comes before any pill.32
  • If you’re thinking about harming yourself, reach out now. Call or text 988 in the US or Canada, call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK or Ireland, or find a free line at findahelpline.com.33

Questions men ask

Do cold showers work as an anaphrodisiac?

Not as a treatment. The evidence behind cold water’s big claims is weak and mixed.34 A cold finish to a shower can work as a jolt that breaks the chain, like standing up and leaving the room. Skip plunges and ice baths: the cold shock sends your heart racing, and that’s a real risk for some hearts.35 If you have a heart condition, ask your doctor before you try cold water at all.

Does hard exercise lower your sex drive?

Very hard training may. Among about 1,000 men who train for endurance, those with the hardest or longest training were more likely to report low libido. A survey like that can’t show cause.36 So don’t use exercise as a dimmer switch. Train for your health, and leave your drive be.

Is beer an anaphrodisiac?

Not in any way that helps. No studies have tested hops on men’s libido.37 Alcohol weakens your brakes: in lab experiments, higher blood alcohol made people say they’d be more willing to have unprotected sex.38 It also disrupts the second half of the night’s sleep.39

Can a doctor prescribe something to lower my libido?

You can ask. A good doctor will start by looking for causes, like a medicine, hormones, mood, or sleep.40 For compulsive sexual behavior, therapy comes first, and SSRIs or naltrexone may be discussed alongside it.41 Testosterone-lowering drugs are reserved for paraphilic disorders.42 Whatever comes up, ask what the side effects are and what happens when you stop.

Sources

  1. Nguyen PL et al. European Urology 2015;67(5):825–836. A review: bone loss, lower desire and sexual dysfunction, fatigue, muscle loss, and anemia. PMID 25097095↩︎

  2. Thibaut F et al. WFSBP 2020 guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of paraphilic disorders. World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 2020;21(6):412–490. They call for bone-density monitoring. PMID 32452729↩︎

  3. Label cautions are condensed from Health Canada’s product monographs where they exist, and otherwise from a major US brand’s label in the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database, checked in October 2026. Licorice: Health Canada’s monograph. Camphor: Health Canada’s counterirritants monograph and the US FDA’s monograph for external analgesics. The label in your hand is the one that counts.↩︎

  4. No studies of hops and men’s testosterone or libido were found. Small trials in men exist on other outcomes, such as appetite (Walker EG et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2022;115(3):925–940). PMID 35102364 · PMID 16934044↩︎

  5. Roemheld-Hamm B. “Chasteberry.” American Family Physician 2005;72(5):821–824: “There are no clinical data to support the use of chasteberry for reducing sexual desire, which has been a traditional application.” Merz PG et al. Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology & Diabetes 1996;104(6):447–453: in 20 healthy men over 14 days, testosterone, FSH, and LH were unaffected, while prolactin shifted with the dose. Daniele C et al. Drug Safety 2005;28(4):319–332: side effects were mild. PMID 15783241 · Roemheld-Hamm 2005 · PMID 9021345↩︎

  6. Grant P. “Spearmint herbal tea has significant anti-androgen effects in polycystic ovarian syndrome.” Phytotherapy Research 2010;24(2):186–188. A 30-day randomized trial in 42 women, in which free and total testosterone fell. There’s no data in men. PMID 19585478↩︎

  7. Hamilton-Reeves JM et al. Fertility and Sterility 2010;94(3):997–1007. Reed KE et al. “Neither soy nor isoflavone intake affects male reproductive hormones.” Reproductive Toxicology 2021;100:60–67: 41 studies, with no effect on testosterone or estrogen at any dose or study length. PMID 19524224 · PMID 33383165↩︎

  8. Two letters with conflicting findings: Armanini D et al. New England Journal of Medicine 1999;341:1158, and Josephs RA et al. Lancet 2001;358:1613. Sigurjonsdottir HA et al. Hormone Research 2006;65(2):106–110: no significant change in testosterone in 21 men after four weeks. Penninkilampi R et al. Journal of Human Hypertension 2017;31(11):699–707: regular licorice raised blood pressure by about 5.5 mmHg and lowered potassium. PMID 16462145 · Penninkilampi et al. 2017↩︎

  9. Schwarcz J. “What is saltpeter used for and is it true it reduces certain ‘carnal urges’?” McGill Office for Science and Society, 20 March 2017. A science-education article, not a study. Article↩︎

  10. Manoguerra AS et al. “Camphor poisoning: an evidence-based practice guideline for out-of-hospital management.” Clinical Toxicology 2006;44(4):357–370. US poison centers logged about 10,000 camphor ingestions a year from 1990 to 2003. PMID 16809137↩︎

  11. Rahimi M et al. “Severe camphor poisoning, a seven-year observational study.” Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology 2017;52:8–13. 30 cases in Tehran, 29 of them male, median age 18. Lowering libido was the main reason in 53% of cases, 40% had seizures, and all survived with supportive care. A case series. A search for human studies of camphor and desire found none. PMID 28363129 · PMID 16809137↩︎

  12. Serretti A, Chiesa A. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 2009;29(3):259–266: sexual side effects in 26% to 80% of people on common antidepressants. Dagostin Ferraz S et al. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2026;82(3):82: against placebo, SSRIs raised orgasm problems about threefold, while the rise in decreased desire wasn’t statistically significant. PMID 19440080 · PMID 41721013↩︎

  13. Pfaus JG. Journal of Sexual Medicine 2009;6(6):1506–1533. Hull EM, Muschamp JW, Sato S. Physiology & Behavior 2004;83(2):291–307. Reviews built mostly on rat research. PMID 19453889 · PMID 15488546↩︎

  14. Turner D, Briken P, Grubbs J, et al. “The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry guidelines on the assessment and pharmacological treatment of compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 2022;24(1):10–69. Psychotherapy comes first; SSRIs and naltrexone are the most relevant medicines; no medicine carries a formal indication for the disorder. PMID 37522807↩︎

  15. Turner D, Briken P, Grubbs J, et al. “The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry guidelines on the assessment and pharmacological treatment of compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 2022;24(1):10–69. Psychotherapy comes first; SSRIs and naltrexone are the most relevant medicines; no medicine carries a formal indication for the disorder. PMID 37522807↩︎

  16. Savard J et al. “Randomised controlled trial of fluoxetine versus naltrexone in compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.” BMJ Mental Health 2026;29(1):e302953. An open-label trial of 80 people over eight weeks. Promising, not proven. PMID 42838712↩︎

  17. Savard J et al. Journal of Sexual Medicine 2020;17(8):1544–1552. 20 men over four weeks, with no comparison group: 55% reported fatigue, and symptoms rose again after treatment stopped, though some gains remained. PMID 32532705↩︎

  18. Finkelstein JS et al. New England Journal of Medicine 2013;369(11):1011–1022. In 400 healthy men whose testosterone was suppressed and then partly restored, desire declined as the dose fell. PMID 24024838↩︎

  19. Thibaut F et al. WFSBP 2020 guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of paraphilic disorders. World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 2020;21(6):412–490. They call for bone-density monitoring. PMID 32452729↩︎

  20. Nguyen PL et al. European Urology 2015;67(5):825–836. A review: bone loss, lower desire and sexual dysfunction, fatigue, muscle loss, and anemia. PMID 25097095↩︎

  21. Shahinian VB et al. New England Journal of Medicine 2005;352(2):154–164: 19.4% of men on androgen deprivation had a fracture within five years, against 12.6% of men not on it. A link from a cohort study. PMID 15647578↩︎

  22. Nead KT et al. Urologic Oncology 2017;35(11):664.e1–664.e9. A meta-analysis of 18 studies: 41% higher risk overall. A link. PMID 28803700↩︎

  23. No supplement appears among the treatments in the WFSBP guidelines for compulsive sexual behavior disorder (Turner 2022). The main supplement evidence for the disorder is a case series of eight men taking NAC, five of whom improved (Blum AW, Grant JE. Journal of Psychiatric Research 2022;154:203–206). PMID 37522807 · PMID 35952519↩︎

  24. Sarris J et al. WFSBP and CANMAT task force. World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 2022;23(6):424–455. It gave provisional support to ashwagandha and lavender oil for anxiety, and judged graded supplements acceptably safe for low-risk use in most circumstances, alongside professional care when illness is more severe. PMID 35311615↩︎

  25. Cassani E et al. Journal of the Neurological Sciences 2016;365:175–180: the seed is about 5% levodopa. Cohen PA et al. JAMA Neurology 2022;79(10):1085–1086: 15 of 16 US products held 2 to 241 mg per serving, and labels didn’t predict the dose. US labels market it for “hormone health” and “dopamine production and motivation.” PMID 27206902 · PMID 35939305 · PMID 18973898↩︎

  26. US prescribing information for pramipexole (section 5.3) and carbidopa-levodopa. In Parkinson’s patients, these drugs are linked to compulsive sexual behavior (Weintraub D et al. Archives of Neurology 2010;67(5):589–595, funded by a maker of one such drug). DailyMed · DailyMed · PMID 20457959↩︎

  27. Carvalho J et al. Journal of Sexual Medicine 2015;12(6):1356–1367. One online community survey of men and women. A link, not proof. PMID 25808900↩︎

  28. World Health Organization, ICD-11, code 6C72. Kraus SW et al. World Psychiatry 2018;17(1):109–110. PMID 29352554↩︎

  29. Label cautions are condensed from Health Canada’s product monographs where they exist, and otherwise from a major US brand’s label in the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database, checked in October 2026. Licorice: Health Canada’s monograph. Camphor: Health Canada’s counterirritants monograph and the US FDA’s monograph for external analgesics. The label in your hand is the one that counts.↩︎

  30. Rastrelli G et al. (ICSM 2024). Sexual Medicine Reviews 2025;13(4):433–455. Expert consensus: check testosterone and prolactin when evaluating men’s sexual problems; thyroid disorders may play a part. PMID 40519205↩︎

  31. US prescribing information for pramipexole (section 5.3), carbidopa-levodopa, and Abilify (aripiprazole, section 5.7). DailyMed · DailyMed · DailyMed↩︎

  32. Turner D, Briken P, Grubbs J, et al. “The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry guidelines on the assessment and pharmacological treatment of compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 2022;24(1):10–69. Psychotherapy comes first; SSRIs and naltrexone are the most relevant medicines; no medicine carries a formal indication for the disorder. PMID 37522807↩︎

  33. Crisis lines checked on each official site in October 2026: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US), 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline (Canada), Samaritans (UK and Ireland), and Find A Helpline. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline · 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline · about 9-8-8 · Samaritans · Samaritans Ireland · Lifeline Australia · Find A Helpline↩︎

  34. Tipton MJ et al. “Cold water immersion: kill or cure?” Experimental Physiology 2017;102(11):1335–1355. Esperland D et al. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 2022;81(1):2111789. Both reviews find the evidence uneven, mostly from small studies. PMID 28833689 · PMID 36137565↩︎

  35. Shattock MJ, Tipton MJ. “‘Autonomic conflict’: a different way to die during cold water immersion?” Journal of Physiology 2012;590(14):3219–3230. A review: the cold shock response drives a fast heart rate, and immersion can trigger irregular heartbeats even in healthy volunteers. PMID 22547634↩︎

  36. Hackney AC et al. “Endurance exercise training and male sexual libido.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 2017;49(7):1383–1388. An online survey of 1,077 men at one point in time. A link, not proof. PMID 28195945↩︎

  37. No studies of hops and men’s testosterone or libido were found. Small trials in men exist on other outcomes, such as appetite (Walker EG et al. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2022;115(3):925–940). PMID 35102364 · PMID 16934044↩︎

  38. Rehm J et al. Addiction 2012;107(1):51–59. A meta-analysis of 12 experiments, measuring intentions rather than behavior. PMID 22151318↩︎

  39. Ebrahim IO et al. “Alcohol and sleep I: effects on normal sleep.” Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research 2013;37(4):539–549. A review of studies in healthy volunteers. PMID 23347102↩︎

  40. Rastrelli G et al. (ICSM 2024). Sexual Medicine Reviews 2025;13(4):433–455. Expert consensus: check testosterone and prolactin when evaluating men’s sexual problems; thyroid disorders may play a part. PMID 40519205↩︎

  41. Turner D, Briken P, Grubbs J, et al. “The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry guidelines on the assessment and pharmacological treatment of compulsive sexual behaviour disorder.” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 2022;24(1):10–69. Psychotherapy comes first; SSRIs and naltrexone are the most relevant medicines; no medicine carries a formal indication for the disorder. PMID 37522807↩︎

  42. Thibaut F et al. WFSBP 2020 guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of paraphilic disorders. World Journal of Biological Psychiatry 2020;21(6):412–490. They call for bone-density monitoring. PMID 32452729↩︎

This guide is education, not medical advice. Read our medical disclaimer and editorial standards.