Supporting women’s health throughout every life stage

For too long, the term “women’s health” in the supplement industry has been a shorthand primarily for menopause, often narrowed down to just a few headline symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats and occasional mood swings.

While it offers a simplified narrative, it fails to address deeper physiological needs, making it an incomplete representation.

Menopause itself is not a two-symptom event. Clinicians and researchers have cataloged well over 100 symptoms associated with the menopausal transition, ranging from vasomotor and psychological changes to hair thinning, joint discomfort, sleep disruption and changes in body composition.

Further, menopause is only a single chapter of a woman’s life. Women spend decades managing their menstrual cycles years before menopause and decades after menopause. Each of these chapters has its own unique physiological demands, and when formulating for women’s health, we need to address the whole timeline, not just the vague, umbrella term “menopause”.

The menstrual years: An underserved chapter

Most women menstruate for approximately 35 to 40 years, happening monthly and lasting several days. Discomfort, hormone swings, headaches or low iron during this extended period highlight a gap, and the innovation pipeline has not yet fully addressed this need.

Regular blood loss through menstruation makes women especially susceptible to iron deficiency, yet co-supplementing iron with other actives isn’t always straightforward, as some antioxidants raise concerns about interfering with iron absorption.

In a randomised, placebo-controlled trial, the enhanced curcumin extract HydroCurc® in combination with Fe directly addressed this by testing the bioavailable curcumin formulation alongside ferrous sulfate at both low and high doses in 155 healthy adults.¹ The result: HydroCurc® did not adversely affect acute iron absorption, giving formulators a way to pair anti-inflammatory support from the optimised curcumin with iron repletion without compromise.

Menstrual cramps are something most women are painfully familiar with, but solutions such as NSAIDs raise other concerns, including gastrointestinal irritation. A 2025 randomized, double-blind, crossover trial tested Levagen®+, Saanroo’s bioavailable palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), as a single-dose intervention for acute menstrual discomfort.² Findings showed a significantly greater reduction in discomfort scores compared to placebo at multiple points during the first two and a half hours, providing a safe alternative for menstrual discomfort management.

Today’s young women are increasingly recognising the importance and advantages of strength and proper muscle composition throughout their lives. Libifem® is a standardised fenugreek seed extract that has shown benefits specifically in female populations, providing a science-based solution tailored for women.

A recent study found that Libifem®, when combined with resistance training, helped improve muscle strength and body composition in women aged 25 to 45.³ This shows that female-focused formulations are beneficial beyond menopause or menstrual issues.

Menopause: More than a symptom list

Now, menopause finally enters the conversation, but it deserves more nuance than it typically receives. Hot flashes and mood swings are real problems, but they often co-occur with other real experiences that many women face, such as hair thinning, unexplained weight gain and sleep disruption, which many women don’t realise are part of the same hormonal picture.

Hair loss is a great example of an underserved symptom. HairAGE®, an extract of Ageratum conyzoides, was studied in a 12-week, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. In 84 men and women experiencing hair loss, oral supplementation with HairAGE® significantly reduced the appearance of hairline recession compared with placebo.⁴ The proposed mechanism involves inhibition of 5-alpha-reductase and prostaglandin D2, the same pathways identified in androgenetic hair loss more broadly.

Regarding the vasomotor aspects of menopausal symptoms, Libifem® was evaluated in a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which 115 women aged 40 to 65 received 600 mg of Libifem or a matching placebo.⁵ The results indicated that 600 mg of Libifem significantly reduced hot flashes and night sweats, with measurable improvements across the vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual domains of the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life questionnaire.

Mood is often underestimated during this stage of a woman’s life, but it shouldn’t be. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, Affron®, a standardized saffron extract, was tested on 82 perimenopausal women over 12 weeks.⁶ The results showed notable improvements in psychological symptoms as assessed by the Greene Climacteric Scale. This study highlights the importance of supporting emotional wellbeing during this period, rather than treating it as just a minor issue.

Weight management has long been seen as a matter of willpower rather than physiology, a perspective that has evolved in recent years. Trpti™, a bioavailable oleoylethanolamide (OEA) formulation, was studied in a 2026 crossover trial where it increased post-meal incretin hormones (GLP-1 and GIP) in a dose-dependent way.⁷

It activates the same appetite and metabolism pathways as current GLP-1 agonists but offers a safe, nutraceutical alternative. Additionally, Trpti™ supports the body’s natural GLP-1 production and has been shown to promote gut health by fostering beneficial microbiomes like Akkermansia, without disrupting gut balance.⁸

Post-menopause: The stage most often overlooked

Unfortunately, once vasomotor symptoms ease, many brands tend to move on – but there are still unaddressed needs that women don’t have the luxury of ignoring. The postmenopausal years bring a sustained drop in estrogen that has real consequences for joint tissue, cognitive function and especially bone health.

Joint and cognitive health have both been significantly demonstrated in Levagen®+’s clinical portfolio. An 8-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study tested 300 mg and 600 mg of Levagen®+ in participants with knee discomfort and found dose-dependent improvements across all WOMAC subdomains: pain, stiffness and function.⁹

Separately, a randomised crossover trial in young, healthy adults found that palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) supplementation significantly increased serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels and improved memory performance, supporting cognitive health.¹⁰

In a follow-up study, Levagen®+ was further evaluated at 600 mg in an all-female population, with results supporting a significant increase in Standard Deviation of Normal-to-Normal (SDNN) compared with placebo. These results indicate that Levagen®+ can support enhanced physiological stress regulation in women.¹¹

Bone health is particularly critical after menopause, yet the discussion on formulations remains limited. Estrogen levels drop, speeding up bone resorption and sharply increasing osteoporosis risk within the decade post-menopause. Resveratrol is often linked to promoting bone health, but its poor absorption limits its effectiveness.

VeriSperse® by Pharmako is a highly bioavailable, cold-water dispersible trans-resveratrol that provides both a readily absorbable option for consumers and versatile formats for formulators.¹² As a subtle but vital concern, bone health gains importance with age, especially in the post-menopausal phase of women’s health.

Meeting women where they actually are

The thread running through all three stages is the same: women’s physiological needs shift continuously, not just once at menopause. A menstruating woman needs iron support and cramp relief, whereas a menopausal woman needs help with vasomotor symptoms, yes, but also hair, mood and metabolic support. Postmenopausal women need joint and bone health addressed just as much as everything else.

Formulating for “women’s health” as a single, menopause-centric category means missing most of a woman’s life. Formulating for the continuum – menstrual, menopausal and postmenopausal – means building solutions that address what’s happening in a woman’s body, backed by the clinical evidence that gives brands confidence to make real claims.

That’s a bigger, more interesting opportunity than the industry has treated it as, and the ingredient science already exists to build it.

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