Shatavari Ingredient Improves Sexual Health Measures in Women: Study

A shatavari ingredient marketed as Aspurus by Waleria Healthtech was shown to support measures of sexual wellness in an 8-week study on 70 women between the ages of 18 and 42 who reported low sexual desire at baseline. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was published in the International Journal of Women’s Health.

Sexual-health studies often group women ages 18–60 together, despite their different hormonal life stages, the company reported, and while older cohorts experience libido drops from natural hormonal depletion, younger women typically maintain optimal ovarian function. The decline in young women’s libido is distinct from age-related hormonal depletion, operating instead as a complex, multifactorial issue often triggered by stress and fatigue.

The present study focused specifically on women of reproductive age, allowing the findings to be evaluated within a defined hormonal life stage rather than across a population spanning reproductive and postmenopausal years. In addition, the study evaluated multiple dimensions of sexual function alongside fatigue, sleep, and vaginal moisture. The objective assessment of vaginal moisture provided an additional physiological measure of lubrication, complementing the participant-reported measures of sexual function.

Aspurus is a full-spectrum Shatavari root extract that mimics the native root’s chemical profile to include seven bioactives and shatavarins at a potency of 5%. Prior studies have shown that the ingredient may alleviate the major symptoms of menopause across different periods of a woman’s life.

Compared with placebo, women receiving Aspurus experienced improvements across several measures of sexual function during the eight-week intervention. The total Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) score improved significantly from baseline to Day 56 (p<0.001), with improvements in sexual desire (34.54%), arousal (64%), and sexual satisfaction (80%). Objectively measured vaginal moisture improved by 63%. Improvements were also observed in fatigue (60.1%) and sleep disturbance (21.8%). The extract was well tolerated throughout the study, with no serious adverse events reported.

“A woman in her early 20s and a woman in her 50s navigating menopause may both experience low sexual desire, but they are experiencing that concern within very different physiological and life-stage contexts,” said Komal Baldwa, founder of Waleria HealthTech. “The same symptom does not mean the same root cause. That insight drove us to design this study specifically around younger women or reproductive-age women, whose ovarian function is intact but whose lifestyles are exhausting. The study is in alignment with reported data about the decline in libido in younger women as a physiological consequence of chronic fatigue, sleep deficits, and anxiety. Rather than examining libido in a vacuum, we tracked how physical comfort and lubrication intersect with modern fatigue and sleep deficits to capture whole picture of younger female sexual wellness.”