New Analysis Maps Two Decades of US Research on Dietary Supplements for Menopause

A new bibliometric analysis published in Menopause mapped 2 decades of US research on dietary supplements used for menopausal symptom management, finding a field that, according to the review, has expanded only modestly and remains concentrated around a small set of ingredients.¹

"The findings indicate that considerable, high-quality research is needed to better support women during the menopause transition," the study authors wrote, noting that research efforts in this area are highly dispersed relative to the number of ingredients actually in use.¹

For supplement manufacturers marketing products in this category, the analysis offers a data-backed map of where clinical evidence is concentrated, and where it is not.

What Did This New Analysis of Menopause Supplement Research Find?

The researchers searched the Web of Science database for English-language studies conducted in the United States, or in US-international collaboration, that tested dietary supplement interventions for perimenopausal or postmenopausal symptoms and health outcomes.¹

After excluding observational and whole-food studies, 253 publications met the criteria. Calcium and vitamin D, isoflavones such as soy protein isolate, and omega-3 fatty acids were the 5 most-studied ingredient categories, while cardiovascular and bone health outcomes accounted for the largest share of highly cited work.

Fourteen distinct thematic clusters emerged from an analysis of author keywords, with nitric oxide, aging, and inflammation identified as more recently emerging research topics.

Why Does Research Coverage Vary So Much Across Menopausal Symptoms?

The analysis found a mismatch between how common certain menopausal symptoms are and how much supplement research addresses them. Vasomotor and genitourinary symptoms affect more than half of menopausal women and often persist for years, yet the dataset included only nine ingredients studied for vasomotor symptoms and ten for genitourinary symptoms.¹

Cognitive difficulties affect roughly 60% of menopausal women but were linked to only ten studied ingredients.¹ Perimenopause was similarly underrepresented, making up just 7.5% of the studies identified, despite being the period when symptoms often first emerge. The study's authors attributed part of this imbalance to the field's reliance on a comparatively small number of well-established ingredients rather than broader experimental coverage.

That gap stands out against current clinical guidance. Hormone therapy remains the most effective treatment for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms, but it isn't appropriate for every patient, and nonhormonal prescription options carry their own contraindications and side effects, leaving a meaningful share of symptomatic women looking for alternatives such as dietary supplements.²

The North American Menopause Society's own 2023 position statement on nonhormone therapy for vasomotor symptoms does not include most dietary supplements among its recommended options, citing insufficient or inconsistent evidence, a gap the new bibliometric analysis helps explain in terms of research volume rather than clinical judgment alone.³

What Does This Mean for Manufacturers Making Supplement Claims?

The analysis also found that research collaboration in this field is limited: more than half of the most productive authors identified had no meaningful connections to other research groups, a pattern the authors linked to a fragmented evidence base with few replication studies.

Several ingredients commonly marketed for menopausal symptoms, including black cohosh, evening primrose oil, St. John's wort, and Ginkgo biloba, were not well represented in the dataset, a gap the authors attributed partly to the study's inclusion criteria rather than an absence of interest in those ingredients.

For manufacturers, the underlying pattern according to the authors is still relevant: widely marketed ingredients in this category do not necessarily carry the same volume of US-based experimental research as calcium, vitamin D, or soy isoflavones.

What Are the Limitations of This Analysis?

The authors note several constraints on their findings. The analysis excluded whole-food interventions and preclinical studies, which may have left out relevant compounds and emerging ingredients not yet studied in supplement form.

Restricting the search to English-language, US-based research improved consistency but reduced generalizability to other regulatory environments and excluded non-English literature. The small number of perimenopause-specific studies also required combining perimenopausal and postmenopausal data in parts of the analysis, limiting how independently that population could be assessed.

References

1. Canino MC, Cohen B, Byrd C, Gahche JJ. Dietary supplements for menopausal symptoms and health: a bibliometric analysis of US research (2000-2024). Menopause. Published online ahead of print 2026. doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000002853

2. Crandall CJ, Mehta JM, Manson JE. Management of menopausal symptoms: a review. JAMA. 2023;329(5):405-420. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.24140

3. The 2023 nonhormone therapy position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause. 2023;30(6):573-590. doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000002200