How Supplements Are Shaping the Future of Menopause Care and Women’s Health

In this Pharmacy Times interview, Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, PhD, MBA, discusses the rapidly evolving dietary supplements landscape, highlighting how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated consumer interest in preventative health and wellness strategies. She explains that as individuals become more proactive about maintaining their health, dietary supplements have become an essential part of lifestyle and chronic disease prevention efforts. Innovation, she notes, must be driven by science—ranging from the development of evidence-based formulations and clinical trials to exploring potential drug-supplement interactions and educating both consumers and health care providers. Pradhan-Nabzdyk also emphasizes the growing focus on women’s health, particularly around menopause, where social media conversations have helped destigmatize natural life stages and spurred significant industry growth.

Pharmacy Times: The supplement market has grown into a $90 billion industry with over 100,000 products available. What factors are driving this rapid expansion, and where do you see the greatest opportunities for innovation?

Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, PhD, MBA: Yeah, that's, again, a multibillion-dollar question. As you said, the industry is growing rapidly, and it has been growing very steadily. But what we have noticed is that since COVID, since 2020, the rise in this industry has been quite fast—exponential, almost. I think a lot of people have started to focus on their health, and as you know, people are more aware of all the different ways that they can manage their health and wellness. Dietary supplements have just become one part of that, especially in this country, where healthcare is quite expensive and medications can be quite expensive.

We have also started a shift toward prevention or maintenance of health—prevention of chronic conditions and maintenance of health. And I think dietary supplements fit that role of helping with maintenance. When you're sick, you obviously have to take your medications, go to the pharmacy, and take prescriptions. But when you're not sick, how can you make sure that you don't get sick? What are the different things you can do?

There are a lot of lifestyle-related changes that people are pursuing. There are diet and nutrition aspects of it, and dietary supplements have become a big part of that.

And then there's the innovation question: Where can we innovate? I'm biased with my answer here—it's science. There are a lot of companies that are now using science, the most cutting-edge science, in their product development when it comes to dietary supplements and clinical trials. But a lot of companies are not, and there is a lot of innovation we can think about in that space.

An example would be: Can we combine prescription medications with some sort of dietary supplement as a support or a management tool for patients who are taking drugs for chronic conditions? The innovation there would be understanding what the drug–dietary supplement interactions are. We don't have a lot of data around those types of things.

I’ve always seen that there are these two opinions or factions: “Dietary supplements don’t work; they are useless,” and then, on the other hand, “They work; I’m going to take them.” I think there has to be a lot of conversation there. Another part of the innovation is around how we educate the consumer and how we educate the healthcare provider. There are myths and misconceptions on both sides.

So I think that’s where I see the innovation. One is really coming up with science-backed new supplements, and the other is around consumer and healthcare education.

Pharmacy Times: Women’s health, especially perimenopause and menopause, is emerging as a key focus area. How is the supplement industry responding to these needs, and what sets apart products that are grounded in evidence?

Pradhan-Nabzdyk: Yeah, this is also, you know, a big—it started off as a trend just a couple of years ago, and now we are seeing a lot of even the big supplement companies getting into that space of menopause, perimenopause, premenopause, and postmenopause. I think it has all started with social media—literally women talking to each other and not being hushed about their life cycles.

A woman's life cycle is not constant. You’re an infant, then a teenager or adolescent. You start with menstruation, then you go into the fertility period, and then you go into menopause. There’s this constant evolution of a woman’s body. Before, people didn’t talk about it—women didn’t talk about it—and just the fact that we have started to talk about it has brought a lot of attention and focus to that aspect of a woman’s life.

I think just by doing that, a lot of companies have started to realize that there is this big change that happens in a woman’s body, and nobody is addressing all the things that happen along with it—all the symptoms. You cannot change menopause; it’s just a natural evolution in life. But how can we support women?

Just a couple of months ago, I was on a panel where we talked about the latest ingredients and the latest products that are being used as a support system for women in those phases of life. Again, it all comes down to science. We need more of that in this space. We need not just companies that make brands and finished products but also new ingredients. We have to start looking into different types of ingredients that we can mix, because what works for one person doesn’t work for another. That’s not just for menopause—that’s for the dietary supplement industry overall.

The more products, the more science-backed products, and the more science-researched ingredients we have, the more helpful it will be. There are a couple of ingredients that have started to really make some noise. One of them is Shatavari, and that’s my favorite one. Again, I’m biased, because when I had my daughter many, many years ago—my daughter will be 29 in a couple of months—I remember my mom bringing this big jar of nasty-tasting herbal powder. I grew up in India, and my daughter was born in India as well. It was called Shatavari, and every day she made me drink it. At that time, it was for lactation support.

What we have seen with some of the studies is that Shatavari can also help with hormonal balance. So that’s one of my favorite ones. I took it again when I had my son in Boston. My mom came to visit, and again, I had Shatavari. So that’s something we are seeing grow in the dietary supplement market.

Then there’s fenugreek—that’s something else that comes from a lot of traditional Indian medicine. There are other things that women are taking to help with symptoms of menopause. For brain fog, for example, ashwagandha is great. Then there are minerals like magnesium that help with sleep-related issues.

There’s a lot of focus and innovation happening in that space, and I’m really happy to see it grow. Again, women make most of the buying decisions, so we cannot ignore them or shush them when they start talking about what naturally happens to their bodies.