As more awareness comes to the menopause care category, brands are evolving their messaging

According to the Female Founders Fund, the menopause space is now a $600 billion market. Now that the category has become more established thanks to a wave of startup brand launches, companies are now squarely focused on education, prioritizing clinically-backed ingredients to further legitimize the category and pushing for wider availability in national beauty retail to reach more customers. Startups also face the added challenge of trying to capture both members of Gen X and millennial females who are coming into menopause and perimenopause. As wellness brands like Stripes Beauty, Joylux and Lyma expand into retail, their focus is evolving from raising awareness of the stresses of menopause to reaching this cohort through the right channels: a mix of digital and analog media. 

Cara Kamenev, president and CEO of actress Naomi Watts’s menopause care brand Stripes Beauty, told Modern Retail that a lot of stigma has been shed since the brand initially launched in 2022. “There is a level of awareness of menopause that didn’t exist even four years ago,” she said. At the time, Kamenev said, there was a lot of work to do to shed the shame of speaking out about uncomfortable symptoms, both from the media side and among retailers and consumers. “Now there is this entirely new category, where women’s health meets beauty and personal care,” Kamanev said.  

Finding the right marketing channel mix

Kamenev said that what makes this moment in time interesting for the menopause category is that today’s consumers represent the first generation going through menopause while having had access to social media and the internet for research for much of their lives.

Women are also living longer, she added, which means they are expected to spend about one-third of their lives in menopause.  

Right now, the demographics for menopause overlap between Gen X and older millennial women, Kamenev said, so their media consumption and shopping patterns can vary vastly. 

These women are taking in content on digital platforms and social media, which Kamenev said makes investing in Meta, TikTok and Pinterest important for a brand like Stripes. Social media is what helped break the conversation around menopause open, and it continues to be a cornerstone for content and brand awareness. 

“But this woman is also still consuming broadcast TV,” Kamenev said. “She also reads more traditional sources of information and still takes editorial credibility into heavy consideration.” That means the menopause marketing playbook covers a wide array of channels, Kamenev said, including earned media through PR, broadcast and social ads.

“Our marketing messaging has evolved since launching,” Kamenev said, adding that broader cultural awareness around menopause has given Stripes permission to run bolder, more provocative campaigns. This summer, for example, Stripes Beauty ran a campaign called “Hotter Than Ever,” with a theme around celebrating midlife. It featured an out-of-home campaign and Hamptons pop-up and sampling series. 

For other brands, standing out in the space means focusing on clinical differentiation.

This week, the supplements brand Apothékary is launching Every Phase, a supplement that targets hormone imbalance and is geared at alleviating menopause symptoms.

This is Apothékary’s first foray into the menopause care space; the company is known for tinctures and drops, some of which are meant to serve as alcohol alternatives and others that are meant to target specific concerns like sleep and digestive health.

According to Shizu Okusa, founder and CEO of Apothékary, the company is constantly looking for ways to service different customers in different areas, and so the rapidly-growing menopause market was the next logical step. “There was a huge space that was still missing on the hormonal side — in particular, women’s health,” Okusa said.

The Every Phase supplement contains Picogenol, a branded, clinically-backed ingredient. Picogenol is said to help alleviate menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and vaginal dryness. “Picogenol also already has 160 clinical studies behind it,” Okusa said, which prompted the company to center the launch campaign on these trials. 

While using an ingredient like Picogenol meant having lower gross margins on Every Phase, Okusa said it’s worth the investment for building credibility. “This is such a serious topic,” Okusa said. “It’s not just treatment for a headache or digestive issues.”

The brand also sent out product samples in advance to collect early feedback. “And we internally did a testimonial and training with about 75 of our partners and affiliates and influencer partners,” Okusa said. The training was conducted by the company’s internal clinical herbalist and PhD team, focusing on Every Phase’s efficacy. It’s a bit of a departure for Apothékary, whose launches have revolved around a standard strategy: “taking beautiful photos, having a unique landing page, getting products to influencers and then launching,” Okusa explained. But Apothékary thought this was a fitting approach for a company where customers are looking to be more educated.

Also as part of the launch, Apothékary will be inviting community members to take part in an eight-week protocol. The program is a challenge for anyone in menopausal or perimenopause to enter, where they will be walked through the protocol of what to eat and how to move their body to aid with the symptoms of menopause or perimenopause.

Leaning on retail partners 

The menopause wellness category took a few years to gain traction among retailers and consumers. The founders of the menopause wellness brand Womaness recently told Modern Retail that retailers like Target were at a loss on where exactly to merchandise their products. Just four years later, retailers like Walmart and Ulta Beauty have created entire sections dedicated to menopause-focused beauty and wellness brands. 

Indeed, retailers are a big piece of the puzzle. In August, Stripes Beauty launched at clean beauty retailer Credo. This marks a major national retail milestone for Stripes, which is now available at Credo Beauty, on Amazon, on QVC and on its own DTC website. The Stripes launch also marks Credo Beauty’s first foray into dedicated menopause care as the clean beauty retailer works to fill gaps in its wellness assortment for older women.

“Our retail partners are now more educated, and ready and willing to bring some of these brands to the forefront,” Kamenev said, adding that retailers like Credo Beauty are increasingly featuring different brands targeting different solutions in-store. Credo Beauty is one example. “They’re putting a stake in the ground on menopause care and merging the conversation between care and beauty, because that line is more blurred than ever,” Kamanev said. 

That effort includes in-store customer education, sampling and beauty advisor education on behalf of Stripes. Retail availability also helps ease potential customers who are unfamiliar with a product like a vaginal moisturizer, Kamenev said. 

Retail is also a major awareness opportunity. As part of the launch at Credo Beauty, Stripes is promoting National Hot Flash Day on Sept. 9 by hosting a New York in-store event led by Watts. In October, the brand will participate in the Friends of Credo Sale to mark Menopause Awareness Month, offering customers 20% off Stripes purchase at Credo.

Okusa of Apothékary pointed to Ulta as another retailer building out its menopause wellness assortment. Apothékary, which launched in 350 Ulta doors in July, will bring Every Phase into Ulta in late September. Every Phase’s debut will have a big omnichannel effort around it, including an Amazon launch and a Sprouts launch in November. Apothékary is also organizing some in-person events to promote Every Phase, including one with the acupuncture studio WTHN. “We’ll also be doing a ton of field events in stores across Sprouts nationwide,” along with activations at Ulta stores to spread the word, Okusa said. 

With menopause solutions specifically, Okusa said consumers have a lot of skepticism when it comes to efficacy. “We have to be really careful with claims, and that’s why we leaned on the clinical studies,” she said.

New brands entering the space are finding other opportunities and challenges. Opal & Joy, which makes a CBD-based sleep aid for perimenopausal women, launched in early 2025 and is still honing its messaging as a menopause solution brand.

Opal & Joy co-founder Melissa Zissou said the company is “still trying to refine” its messaging and find what’s resonating with this customer. The biggest marketing challenge the company is running into is policy around advertising CBD as a supplement. Zissou said there is also a lot of noise to compete with, as well as little customer awareness of how organic CBD can help with sleep disruption and night sweats during menopause. The brand’s products are clinically formulated and third-party tested, which makes it slow and expensive for the bootstrapped startup to scale and eventually enter retail. “We have to come at it from a different perspective, so direct-to-consumer is our main channel right now,” she said.

Advertising is also a challenge. Opal & Joy can’t advertise directly on digital platforms like Meta and Google Shopping due to restrictions around CBD products. “We’re starting to do an influencer outreach campaign to find people who can speak to this,” Zissou said. Part of the year-one strategy has included thought leadership appearances by the founders, such as panels and podcasts, to help establish the brand in menopause education circles. 

Stripes Beauty’s Kamenev said the menopause space has evolved rapidly in the past few years, and the company has been able to do “10 years’ worth of work in two, just because of how quickly information travels now.”

“However, there is still much more to be done,” she concluded.