Is CBD an aphrodisiac? No human trial, one test in mice

Typing "CBD aphrodisiac" or "CBD libido" into a search engine assumes that some study has compared CBD with a placebo on desire. That study does not exist. In September 2026, a PubMed search crossing "cannabidiol" with "libido", "sexual desire" and "sexual function" returns no controlled trial in humans. The data available are of a different kind, and each source adds little.

Our summary of what clinical studies of CBD really say lists the few indications where trials exist and places this gap within cannabidiol research as a whole.

On this subject, the reference is a review published in January 2020 in Sexual Medicine Reviews by Becky Lynn and colleagues, devoted to female sexual function. It retains twelve human research papers. Eleven are retrospective surveys, in which participants describe their experience after the fact; only one is a prospective cohort study.

In animals, the review describes effects that depend on dose. Low doses facilitate sexual behaviour or have no effect, and high doses inhibit it. This work concerns THC and cannabis: according to the authors, the plant's other cannabinoids have not been tested on the sexual behaviour of female rats or women. They leave the question open and call for more studies to find out whether the effect is positive or negative depending on dose and species.

The "aphrodisiac" argument rests on figures from surveys about cannabis. The most cited, published in January 2023 in the Journal of Cannabis Research by Moser and colleagues, questioned 811 adults online who already used cannabis. More than 70% of them reported greater desire and more intense orgasms.

Nothing about CBD can be drawn from this, for three reasons. The participants selected themselves, from among people favourable to the product. Their answers describe a feeling, with no control group and no physiological measurement. The product studied is cannabis, whose psychoactive effect comes from THC, and CBD does not act on the same receptors in the same way, as our comparison of THC and CBD explains. The idea that the plant's compounds reinforce one another is still a hypothesis, discussed in our article on the entourage effect.

The body produces its own cannabinoids, including anandamide (AEA) and 2-AG. A study published in 2012 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine measured their blood levels in 21 women, before and after a neutral film and then an erotic one. Anandamide fell as physiological and felt arousal rose. 2-AG also fell as felt arousal increased.

So the system takes part in the sexual response. Nothing suggests, however, that it should be activated, since arousal went with lower endocannabinoid levels if anything. How the system works is described in our article on the endocannabinoid system.

A study published in 2018 in Reproductive Toxicology gave oral CBD to young male mice, 21 days old at the start. They received 15 or 30 mg/kg for 34 consecutive days. At 15 mg/kg, the mice took longer to attempt a first mating and mated less. At 30 mg/kg, the fertility rate fell by 30% and the number of litters by 23%.

These doses, given to young animals, do not transfer as they are to humans. The results do agree with other work, though. A 2020 review in the Journal of Applied Toxicology brings together 32 references. In the mammals studied, it links CBD exposure to smaller testes, fewer germ cells and lower fertilisation rates. Its authors consider that knowledge remains limited.

In March 2025, ANSES proposed classifying CBD as presumed toxic to reproduction (category 1B). The agency cites effects on sperm production and fertility in monkeys, rats and mice. The proposal is before the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), and our article on the classification proposed by ANSES details the procedure.

This argument has no place in French law. Article L. 5111-1 of the Public Health Code turns a product into a medicine the moment it is presented as having curative or preventive properties with regard to human diseases. For a food, Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 admits only authorised health claims, and none concerns CBD. On 20 May 2026, the French Ministry of Agriculture also restated that foods containing CBD are not authorised.

A bottle labelled "libido" therefore contains ordinary CBD, sold with a claim the law forbids. Our guide to advertising rules for CBD products lists what a brand may write. In France, the only authorised cannabidiol-based medicine, Epidyolex, is prescribed for rare forms of epilepsy. If a loss of desire lasts, see a doctor and do not rely on a product page.