There’s a wave of new companies making big promises to millennial women about perimenopause. Is it all too good to be true?
or the targeted ads. But I do know that starting not long after my 40th birthday, two years ago in the early fall, I began to wake up so sweaty that I developed a persistent rash all over my chest. My skin was constantly itchy, and I’d claw my legs in my sleep, leaving bloody scratches that made me look like I’d gotten in a bike accident — which was funny, because my breasts were so excruciatingly sore I could no longer ride a bike or exercise — or drive a car without wearing a sports bra.
As a person of a certain age who spends a lot of time online, I was well aware that menopause was having a “moment.
Berry — who in May stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and declared “I am in menopause, okay?!” as part of a push for federally funded research — had rebranded her wellness company as a menopause “community” platform, called ReSpin, which aims to “re-spin” ideas around menopause, and was now hawking a $495 vaginal red-light tool — a warm, vibrating wand — for a company called Joylux, where she was a major shareholder.
If you find yourself wondering, “Is it perimenopause, or do I have a thyroid problem? Is it perimenopause, or is it the state of the world?” lucky for you, there is no accurate test to provide a diagnosis, despite kits promising clarity via hormone-level measurements . “One of the hardest things about perimenopause,” says Rebecca Dunsmoor-Su, a board certified OB/GYN and the chief medical officer at Gennev, a menopause telehealth company, “is that you can’t prove it’s happening.
Supplements make up the greatest share of the market overall — possibly as much as 95 percent — and the vast majority of these capsules, powders, and potions are unregulated. For every data-backed product — usually single-ingredient standards like magnesium for sleep and vitamin D for bone health — there are many more complicated, untested blends making big claims. Experts are emphatic that there are no nonprescription remedies for hot flashes.
About six months into my perimeno-supplement journey, I got in with a new doctor, a menopause specialist with a monthslong wait list who didn’t take insurance. By the time I arrived, I was so anxious I was practically in tears. I didn’t exactly think she was going to solve my problems instantly, but I had high hopes.
Nanette Santoro, the chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine sees today’s boom as part of a pattern dating back to Somers. “It frustrates me to no end that women seem to fall for this nonsense over and over and over,” she said. “What about ‘buyer beware’ are we missing?”
This was “The New Pause,” a $295 per ticket conference hosted by The Swell in collaboration with Naomi Watts’s Stripes. The women in attendance didn’t particularlymenopausal, though certainly they looked middle-aged — tailored workwear, chunky loafers, light cosmetic work.
At a white-tablecloth dinner that night, on an upper floor of the hotel, I sat between two doctors, a physician who’d recently founded a women’s health clinic in New Jersey, and a gynecologic surgeon from Long Island who’d recently left a big hospital to open a menopause practice.
I got home the night of the conference feeling overwhelmed. But I was also somewhat comforted by the fact that everyone seemed to be as confused as I was. If even the doctors couldn’t agree, couldn’t I let myself off the hook a little for not knowing what to do? I remembered that the Dr. Kellyann’s Daily Ritual capsules, praised by Barrymore, were promoted as “clinically proven,” and I searched for the fine print. I found it at the bottom of the product’s webpage: It was based on “self-reported survey answers.” Joylux, meanwhile, had advertised its vagina wand as “clinically validated.” The company sent me three studies to support its various claims, but two of these were co-authored by a member of the company’s executive team.
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