I’m 52, perimenopausal, and I’m tired of watching menopause turned into the latest anti-ageing sales pitch.

For years, women were left to quietly struggle through perimenopause with little information, patchy medical support and a fair amount of dismissal. Now that the conversation has finally opened up, something else has rushed in to fill the space: marketing. Lots of it. Glossy, expensive, fear-based marketing that positions menopause as a problem to be fixed — and conveniently, fixed by whatever product is being sold.

Menopause hasn’t suddenly appeared. Women have always gone through it. What has changed is how aggressively it’s being packaged, branded and monetised.

From silence to saturation

I welcome the fact that menopause is no longer taboo. Talking openly about hot flushes, brain fog, anxiety, sleep disruption and hormonal shifts matters. It saves women years of confusion and helps them advocate for better healthcare. That progress is real and worth protecting.

But somewhere along the way, we lost the plot.

Menopause has become a trend. A “moment”. A marketing category. Beauty and wellness brands that spent decades selling us anti-wrinkle creams are now repackaging the same messages under the banner of “menopause support”. The implication is clear: ageing is still the enemy — we’re just calling it hormonal now.

Menopause is not a branding opportunity

What troubles me most is how menopause is framed. Too often it’s presented as a crisis point — the moment everything starts to go wrong. Your skin dries out, your hair thins, your weight shifts, your mood changes. The subtext is that unless you intervene quickly and spend wisely, you’ll lose control of your body, your attractiveness and your relevance.

That narrative is not empowering. It’s exploitative.

Menopause is a natural life stage, not a malfunction. Yes, symptoms can be challenging and for some women debilitating. That deserves medical attention, research funding and informed clinical care — not panic-driven consumerism. When every normal hormonal change is turned into a sales hook, women are encouraged to see their bodies as failing rather than adapting.

The anti-ageing message, rebranded

Let’s be honest: much of the menopause boom is anti-ageing culture in a new outfit.

Instead of “erase wrinkles”, it’s “restore oestrogen-depleted skin”. Instead of “turn back time”, it’s “support menopausal collagen loss”. The language has softened, but the message is the same — ageing is something to fight, manage or conceal.

This is particularly galling because many women in midlife are finally reaching a place of confidence, self-knowledge and emotional resilience. Yet the commercial world insists on dragging us back into insecurity, telling us we’re only one symptom away from decline.

Where healthcare ends and marketing begins

There’s a crucial distinction that often gets blurred: evidence-based care versus lifestyle branding.

Hormone replacement therapy, where appropriate, can be life-changing. Lifestyle adjustments — sleep, nutrition, movement, stress management — genuinely matter. But these are not interchangeable with unregulated supplements, overpriced skincare lines or wellness gadgets that promise balance without evidence.

In the UK, many women still struggle to access knowledgeable menopause care through the NHS. Against that backdrop, it feels particularly cynical to see private brands positioning themselves as the solution, often without robust clinical backing.

What women actually need

What we need isn’t another “meno”

product launch.

We need:

• Better menopause education for GPs and healthcare professionals
• Clear, accessible, evidence-based information
• Honest conversations that don’t default to fear
• Products that are transparent about what they can — and can’t — do

Most of all, we need menopause to be discussed without tying a woman’s worth to how youthful she looks while going through it.

A life stage, not a sales funnel

Menopause is not a marketing opportunity. It’s a transition — complex, individual and deeply human. Some women breeze through it. Others struggle for years. Both experiences are valid, and neither should be turned into a commercial panic.

I don’t want menopause wrapped in aspirational language designed to make me spend more money trying to look like I’m not ageing. I want honesty, respect and proper care. I want to age without being told that every change is something I should be correcting.

We fought hard to get menopause talked about. I’d hate to see that progress undermined by an industry that’s more interested in profit than women.

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References

Allure (2024). We Lost the Plot on Menopause.
https://www.allure.com/story/we-lost-the-plot-on-menopause

Orgad, S. & Gilchrist, K. (2025). “Me-No-Pause”: Anxieties and fantasies of ageing and femininity in contemporary menopause advertising. London School of Economics.

British Medical Journal (BMJ). Menopause care and the medicalisation of midlife.
BMJ 2022;377:e069369

NICE (UK). Menopause: diagnosis and management (NG23).
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

The Menopause Charity (UK). Evidence-based menopause information and guidance.

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