Love the Perimenopause Movement, Skeptical of the Checkout Cart

For years, I watched my friend get dismissed by her OB/GYN every time she brought up her perimenopause symptoms. Kept being told she was fine, that it was "just stress," that she was "too young." She eventually went to a telehealth platform, got prescribed HRT, and felt like herself again for the first time in two years. The access argument is real.

And yet.

Dr. Jen Gunter recently published a scathing breakdown of a popular perimenopause supplement — the kind with a clinical-sounding name, a list of "clinically studied" adaptogens, and a $50/month price tag — and concluded that the evidence behind most of the ingredients is remarkably thin. Small studies. Industry-funded trials. Low-quality data dressed up in high-confidence language. A STAT News piece this week went even further, arguing that the perimenopause movement itself may be hurting women, medicalizing a normal life transition and attributing everything from brain fog to weight gain to hormones when the culprit might just be, you know, being alive and tired and 40.

But two things can be true at once. The perimenopause movement rewrote the conversation — women are finally being believed, getting access to care, and having language for what their bodies were doing after years of being dismissed. And, the industry that followed it isn't necessarily on our side. Supplements are unregulated, "may support" is not a medical claim, and being glad the conversation started doesn't mean everyone showing up to it has our best interests at heart. 

Talk to your doctor, read the ingredients, and check the evidence. Gratitude and a little healthy suspicion aren't mutually exclusive, especially when someone's charging $50 a month for it.