Menopause Is the Latest Avenue For Commercial Exploitation Without Attention to Women or Science

Menopause, once relegated to whispered conversations and cultural invisibility, is finally stepping into the daylight. Years of advocacy have begun to chip away at the stigma, opening space for honest dialogue about women’s health challenges and realities during this natural transition. Yet, as someone who has long championed the mainstreaming of menopause, I must sound a new alarm: the very forces that once shamed women into silence are now busy monetising their voices, turning menopause into the latest goldmine for the wellness-industrial complex.

The global “menopause market” is booming, with estimates placing its worth at nearly $17 billion and climbing. Brands are racing to label everything from herbal teas to yoga mats as “menopause-friendly,” charging a premium for products that often differ little from their regular counterparts. The message is relentless: menopause is not just a phase; it’s a problem to solve – preferably with a branded solution for three easy payments.

If this sounds familiar, it should. The marketing playbook is well-worn. We’ve seen it with menstruation, acne, skin tone, and pregnancy. Each time, the advertising machine has preyed on women’s insecurities, pathologising natural variations in the female body and selling the “cure” at a premium. Menopause is simply the latest chapter in this saga of commercial exploitation.

But the industry’s ingenuity doesn’t stop slapping a new label on old products. The medicalisation of menopause is in full swing. While some women experience severe symptoms that merit medical intervention, whether menopause itself can be considered a disease is a medical question. Yet, the market is awash with medications, supplements, and therapies – many of questionable provenance. Antidepressants, hormone therapies, and a host of alternative treatments are marketed as essential, blurring the line between genuine support and opportunistic profiteering.

This is not a new phenomenon. The pharmaceutical industry’s capacity to invent diseases to fit their products is legendary. Another vivid example is the saga of the so-called “pink Viagra.” Inspired by the astronomical success of Viagra for men, which generated billions and reshaped the market for sexual health, pharmaceutical companies set their sights on creating a parallel blockbuster for women. But there was a hitch for medical businesspersons: there was no equivalent, defined disease in women to match erectile dysfunction.

Undeterred, the industry set about inventing one. Researchers with close ties to drug companies, often sponsored by the very firms racing to develop a female Viagra, began convening at industry-funded conferences. The result was the birth of 'female sexual dysfunction', a catch-all diagnosis that transformed a spectrum of everyday female sexual experiences into a medical disorder. The campaign was multi-pronged: pseudo-scientific papers flooded journals, a fake institute was set up to lend legitimacy, and a global marketing blitz ensued.

The story reached its zenith in 2015, when the US Food and Drug Administration, after repeated rejections and a relentless lobbying campaign, approved Addyi (Flibanserin) as the first drug for “female sexual interest/arousal disorder.” The approval process was a masterclass in disease mongering. Not only did the company behind Addyi, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, orchestrate a gender-equity campaign called “Even the Score” to frame the drug’s approval as a feminist victory, but it also flooded the media with stories of women’s unmet needs. In contrast, the scientific evidence for the drug’s efficacy remained shaky at best. The FDA’s own advisory panel had previously rejected Addyi due to concerns about its risk-benefit profile. Still, the tide turned under public pressure and the allure of a new market. Two days after approval, Sprout was acquired for $1 billion, confirming that the real blockbuster was not the drug but the disease invented to justify it.

The Addyi saga is a cautionary tale for menopause. It shows how easily the machinery of marketing and pseudo-science can turn a natural variation in human experience into a lucrative pathology. The public, seduced by the promise of simple, scientific solutions, is all too willing to embrace these narratives, even as the underlying science remains shaky. The result is a cycle of disappointment and disillusionment, but the marketing machine marches on, ever searching for the next “untapped” market.

The impact of this commercial onslaught is not just financial. A recent study found that women’s earnings drop by an average of 4.3% in the first four years after a menopause diagnosis, rising to a 10% reduction by year four. Many women reduce their working hours or leave the workforce entirely, often due to unmanaged symptoms and a lack of workplace support. The result is long-term financial insecurity, compounded by the costs of “menopause-friendly” products and services that may offer little real benefit. Meanwhile, the relentless messaging that menopause is a problem to be fixed reinforces the notion that women’s bodies are inherently flawed.

Nowhere is this dynamic more pernicious than in India, where patriarchal norms and systemic gender inequity compound the challenges women face. The gender health gap is stark: women have less access to healthcare, are often excluded from decisions about their health, and are concentrated in low-paid, precarious jobs with little social protection. For most Indian women, the luxury “menopause edit” is a distant fantasy. Their needs are more fundamental: accurate information, affordable healthcare, and workplaces that recognise and accommodate their realities. Yet, the marketing blitz around menopause-friendly products targets an urban elite, deepening existing inequities and leaving millions behind.

The way forward is clear, though not easy. We must reclaim the narrative around menopause, resisting the urge to medicalise and monetise every aspect of the human female experience. Normalising menopause as a natural transition, demanding evidence-based products and services, and making workplaces genuinely supportive are the real levers of change. In India and beyond, this means investing in women’s health, education, and empowerment, not just selling more things to buy.

To business leaders and marketers: if you genuinely want to support women, start by hiring them, promoting them, and listening to them. Create workplaces where menopause is not a source of shame or disadvantage but simply another chapter in a woman’s life. And if you must sell menopause-related products, do so with honesty, transparency, and respect for women’s intelligence.

To policymakers and advocates: keep pushing for systemic change. The real menopause revolution will not be televised nor sold in a bottle. It will be built on the foundations of gender equity, workplace inclusion, and respect for women’s autonomy.

Menopause deserves to be mainstreamed, not monetised. Let’s celebrate our progress in breaking taboos but stay vigilant against those who would turn a natural transition into the next big business opportunity. Women have enough to contend with – let’s not add a “menopause tax” to the list.

Sunoor Verma is the president of The Himalayan Dialogues and an international expert in leadership, strategic communication and global health diplomacy. His website is www.sunoor.net.

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