Many products aimed at women over 45 lack meaningful quantities of key nutrients, consumer watchdog Which? found
Menopause supplements costing more than £400 a year are no better than a £22-a-year multivitamin, according to analysis by the consumer watchdog Which?.
Which? found that many popular supplements that are aimed at women over 45 going through menopause or perimenopause lack meaningful quantities of key nutrients, yet cost 20 times more than standard multivitamins.
The global menopause supplement market is valued at nearly $17bn and is expected to reach $25bn by 2030, as women look for ways to manage a variety of symptoms associated with menopause such as hot flushes, poor sleep and mood swings.
But research by Which? found that none of the supplements it studied contained the correct nutrients in the right doses to support their use for menopause.
Shefalee Loth, a public health nutritionist at Which? who co-led the research, said: “Which? is concerned that the supplements industry has become a wild west and regulators are not doing enough to get a grip on dubious marketing and unchecked quasi-medical claims from firms apparently seeking to cash in on people’s health anxiety and insecurities.”
Calcium and vitamin D are the most important nutrients during perimenopause and menopause as they support bone health as oestrogen levels decline. Maintaining good levels of iron, magnesium and other vitamins and minerals can also help with symptoms.
Nutritionists from Which? examined the active ingredients in 26 popular supplements sold by retailers such as Holland & Barrett, Boots and Amazon and found that a high-quality multivitamin alongside targeted supplements where needed was often cheaper and potentially more effective than a so-called all-in-one menopause blend.
It found that Asda’s A-Z Multivitamins & Minerals, costing 6p a day (£22 a year), contained all essential vitamins plus 200mg of calcium and 100mg of magnesium. In contrast, the most expensive supplement, Love Mushrooms’ Empower, cost £1.33 a day for a two-tablet dose (£485 a year) yet did not contain menopause-specific nutrients such as magnesium and calcium.
Similarly, Wild Nutrition’s Women’s 45+ Daily Multi Nutrient, costing £1.27 a day (£468 a year), contained just 1.5µg of vitamin D, 60mg of calcium and 30mg of magnesium, significantly under NHS recommended daily amounts, Which? found.
The watchdog also found that many menopause supplements’ key nutrients were in doses too low to be beneficial, or they omitted important vitamins and minerals altogether.
The highest-scoring menopause supplement analysed, Vitabiotics’ Menopace Max, cost 93p a day (£340 a year) – more than 15 times the price of Asda’s 6p multivitamin.
The findings follow research by UCL into 201 supplements sold in the UK that found less than half of products contained vitamin D and calcium and the majority of ingredients were not specifically recommended by major menopause societies.
Responding to Which?’s research, Dr Xand van Tulleken, an honorary associate professor at the UCL Institute for Global Health, said: “Every year our annual spending on menopause supplements is hundreds of times more than our spending on menopause research. There is no persuasive evidence that menopause supplements have a significant effect on women’s symptoms, some of them are dangerous, and the pricing and marketing is exploitative and confusing. They are a massive rip-off for consumers who desperately want to be well.”
Martin Last, the director general of the Health Food Manufacturers’ Association, said: “We encourage industry manufacturers to formulate and recommend supplements as required by the many food regulations that apply to food supplements. Many life stages, including the menopause, may create increased nutritional demands on an individual and these may be met by supplementation as an addition to a healthy diet.”
In a statement provided after publication, Holland & Barrett said its own-brand menopause products were “specifically formulated for the nutritional needs associated with this life stage” and that “they contain meaningful, evidence-based levels of key vitamins and minerals and are not simply standard multivitamins with menopause branding”.
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