Interesting opinion piece in the Guardian
The new menopause market has been well and truly tapped by Eva Wiseman
Few excerpts from it below:
“A month after McCall’s first documentary on the subject broadcast in 2021, one pharmaceutical company reported a 30% rise in demand for HRT products. Then corporations like Channel 4 and Google announced dedicated “menopause policies”, leading to 600 companies signing the “Menopause Workplace Pledge”, promising to support women in the working environment. This week MPs are calling for NHS health checks for 45-year-old women, and free HRT prescriptions. All good. All good!”
“A piece about menopause wellness in Vogue reported “an untapped market worth an estimated $600bn”. As well as supplements and “menopause doulas”, new products and services marketed towards menopausal women include special underwear, scented sprays for hot flushes, a skincare range “tailored to fluctuating cycles”, dedicated shampoos and beauty treatments, one of which left the Vogue writer with “skin far less inflamed than usual, and my soul soothed”. It trickled down. In August, Boots’ No 7 brand brought out a line of beauty products in the anti-ageing mould, “[choosing to] proudly put ‘Menopause’ on its packaging” and Primark presented a range of menopause nightwear with “anti-flush technology, cooling yarn and odour and temperature control”. Consider this market now tapped.”
“Which is why the rise in menopause marketing makes me mutter darkly into my tea. The joyful moment when women were suddenly allowed to talk about their bodies, hormones and fears was cut short by an ad for shampoo.
One problem with menopause is the lack of support for its symptoms. But the solution to the bigger problem, that women are not valued after they reach middle-age, is not: “buy 100 products that make you seem younger”. Perhaps a “glow cream” makes one menopausal woman feel better for an evening, but it does not help menopausal women as a whole. In fact, it could be argued that these aspirational products damage them further, by perpetuating the idea that looking young is the answer. And beyond that, by imposing a pressure familiar to most women, whether navigating motherhood, ageing, sex or work – the pressure to win at it. Or, as a menopausal friend messaged me yesterday, “Do I really have to have a ‘good’ menopause? Can’t I just feel a bit cross?”
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/oct/23/the-new-menopause-market-has-been-well-and-truly-tapped