The report, “Reframe claims to systems to win in women’s longevity,” highlights muscle health, ovarian function and gut adaptability as three key systems that could shape the next wave of innovation in supplements, functional foods and women’s wellness.
According to the report, 36% of U.S. consumers define healthy aging as living without health-related limitations vs 14% who associate it primarily with looking youthful. As consumers increasingly prioritize function over appearance, supplement brands may need to rethink how they position products and longevity claims.
“‘Anti-aging’ products have been historically positioned for standalone use, whereas systems-level health reflects integrated routines that target underlying drivers of aging,” said the report’s author, Joan Li, Mintel wellness associate principal analyst. “This means supplement brands should ensure their products and claims map onto specific longevity outcomes, like muscular resilience and ovarian function. Brands should also situate offerings in real-world routines that span across categories and goals. In practice, this might look like a protein powder that improves consistency in resistance training to support muscle mass or a fiber capsule that complements hormone-balancing diets.”
Muscle emerges as a longevity pillar
Women are increasingly viewing muscle mass not as a fitness metric, but as a marker of healthy aging that reflects resilience, mobility and biological age.
The trend is prompting brands to reposition muscle health from a fitness goal to a longevity strategy, recognizing its role in preserving mobility, independence and overall health as women age. The longevity shift may also accelerate what has been dubbed the "proteinification" and "creatineification" of the market. Once largely confined to sports nutrition, protein and creatine are increasingly appearing in products aimed at mainstream consumers, from beauty and healthy aging formulations to women’s health offerings. As muscle preservation becomes a cornerstone of longevity, these ingredients are gaining relevance beyond performance, with brands positioning them as tools to support healthy aging and long-term functional health.
“Muscle is being reframed because it’s one of the most tangible ways consumers can feel aging in real time,” Li said. “Unlike more abstract markers of health, women can directly experience changes in their strength and functional ability year over year. As the consumer base skews older, brands are finding new relevance by positioning muscle beyond fitness and toward something more preventative. In this context, maintaining muscle is less about aesthetics and more about preserving capacity, independence and long-term resilience—feeling younger, longer.”
Ovarian health emerges as a longevity frontier
Ovarian health is moving beyond fertility and entering the longevity chat, creating opportunities for brands to reframe preventative and hormonal wellness solutions around healthspan support.
“Menopausal healthspan support reflects both an evolution in science and a shift in consumer mindset,” Li told NutraIngredients. “On the scientific front, innovation is accelerating through increased investment and cultural attention. As more high-profile women and women in health sciences enter perimenopause and menopause, they help bring ovarian health into the mainstream. That said, many breakthrough therapies will take years to materialize.”
While those therapies may still be years away, Li said brands can begin addressing the space now by responding to growing consumer demand for solutions tailored to women’s unique biological and longevity needs.
“By reframing existing preventative ingredients and hormonal wellness through the lens of ovarian health and menopause management, brands can begin to support this space now, positioning themselves for when the longevity science gap closes between men and women.”
The shift is also creating new opportunities for ingredients traditionally associated with fertility and reproductive health. According to the report, inositol is increasingly being repositioned as a longevity ingredient, reflecting growing consumer awareness of the connections between ovarian function, metabolic health and healthy aging.
Li said fertility-adjacent ingredients represent a significant untapped opportunity as they expand beyond reproductive health and into menopause management and longevity support.
“I’m particularly excited about the whitespace opportunity that fertility-adjacent ingredients like inositol represent as they move into longevity and begin to anchor menopausal healthspan,” she said. “Inositol supports ovarian function—an emerging lever of biological aging in the female body—and growing evidence ties it to sleep, energy and metabolic health, reinforcing its relevance to broader longevity.”
“As a result, I expect [inositol] to increasingly appear in multi-ingredient longevity formulations—helping reshape the category from daily supplementation to more targeted support for women’s biological aging,” Li said.
Femtech and the future of longevity
Beyond ingredients, advances in biomarker tracking and femtech platforms could reshape how women monitor aging and longevity. Li expects ovarian biomarkers to play a larger role in how consumers understand and manage healthspan. Advances in at-home testing are making it easier for consumers to track hormones such as AMH, FSH and estradiol, which could become widely recognized indicators of ovarian health and biological age down the road.
“At-home biomarker tracking makes longevity more tangible by connecting testing, insights and recommended action within a single ecosystem,” Li said. “This technology helps consumers see how different inputs impact key health indicators, making lofty longevity goals more measurable and motivating.”
“For femtech specifically, the opportunity is to make insights and technological integration more relevant to women’s biological realities,” she added. “The winning path forward lies in validating and simplifying solutions so that a wide range of health data points translates into routines women feel confident are tailored to their specific needs.”
Gut health: The healthspan enabler
Once viewed primarily through the lens of digestion, gut health is evolving into a broader role as a longevity and healthspan support tool. According to the report, women increasingly view digestive health as interconnected with hormonal balance, metabolism, cognition and other key health outcomes.
“Targeted claims and greater specificity of strains will define the next evolution of digestive health, as women increasingly recognize that their gut health shifts across life stages,” Li told NI. “To stay relevant, brands will need to move beyond positioning gut health in isolation and instead tie gut-enhancing solutions to key, age-related functions such as metabolism, hormonal balance and cognition.”
The trend could create opportunities for brands to move beyond general digestive support and develop formulations tailored to specific life stages like perimenopause and menopause. Rather than positioning biotics solely around gut support, more companies may begin to connect them to metabolic health, hormone regulation and healthy aging outcomes.
Looking ahead, Li believes the next phase of innovation will extend beyond ingredients and health claims. As consumers continue to build complex longevity regimens, brands will need to focus on making products easier and more enjoyable to incorporate into everyday routines.
“Format, product experience and delivery system will become the next critical innovation levers,” Li said. “Most women don’t have the time or inclination to manage complex habit stacks, so the opportunity lies in balancing efficacy and science with convenience and flexibility of use.”
