Menopause Beauty: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
Menopause beauty is likely a term you’ve been hearing more and more of as menopause continues to break taboos, following the lead of other historically concealed categories like period care and sexual wellness. Fueled by celebrity-backed startups, indie brands, and legacy beauty conglomerates, menopause beauty is finally settling into the spotlight.
A myriad of new entrants is filling market gaps with products, platforms and apps, hormone testing kits, and educational resources. The space is becoming crowded, but with more than 1.2 billion women in menopause or post-menopause by 2030, a rising tide lifts all boats. The recent entrance of dozens of reputable brands proves the immense opportunity in the growing market. Increased awareness, innovation, and investment will help menopause beauty achieve its full potential. While we cannot eradicate menopause completely, we can minimize symptoms and empower women with reinvigorated life, career, and relationship opportunities. However, antiquated stigmas and a long history of understudy in menopausal health present severe hurdles for the industry and consumers alike.
Menopause
As a woman in my 20s, I cannot speak about menopause from a personal experience, but internet resources are consistent in their description of menopause symptoms: extreme changes in your mood, skin, gut, and sleep. Medically speaking, menopause is a natural part of aging and marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years. Every woman’s experience with menopause is different, driven by her unique oestrogen and progesterone withdrawal process. There are 34 possible menopause symptoms, with the most common ones listed below from Mira’s August 2022 study.
Add to that, the symptoms begin in perimenopause, which can begin eight to 10 years before menopause. Symptoms generally last about seven years but can be as long as 14 years. Considering the average woman’s lifespan is ~80, that’s up to nearly 1/5 of her life spent battling symptoms.
Problem
Unbearable symptoms aside, we have a systemic problem on our hands, rooted in antiquated stigmas and a lack of medical resources and research. These issues nurture misinformation and misdiagnoses, fragmented support, and a massive funding gap preventing further innovation.
Long-Lasting Stigmas: Women have been shamed and stigmatized over menopause for hundreds of years, despite it being a fundamental part of a woman’s life. It’s difficult for women to fully understand and manage their symptoms if they’re not comfortable discussing them with friends and family. For this reason, common knowledge of menopause is patchy and leaves women feeling alienated, lost, and thinking WTF is going on.
Lack of Medical Resources and Research: A Johns Hopkins-led study discovered that some American OB/GYN residency programs fail to offer trainees any formal curriculum or clinical experience focused primarily on menopausal health. In their study of 5,000 OB/GYN residents only 20% reported receiving menopause training, while 70% noted they would like to receive this. Inadequate menopause resources and research breeds misdiagnoses or delayed diagnoses as well as innovation stagnation.
While we have come a long way, there’s still work to be done. By initiating conversations that help society understand menopause, we can empower women to advocate for themselves and encourage the medical system to fund more research on treatments for the myriad of menopause symptoms.
Market Size
Roughly 47 million enter the menopause category every year. By 2030 more than 1.2 billion women will be menopausal or postmenopausal in 2023. Wow. And on top of that, women 50+ spend $22 billion a year on beauty products and 70% of women 40+ want to see more beauty and personal care products for perimenopausal and menopausal women. Women want more when it comes to menopause solutions. According to the Female Founders Fund the space is a $600 billion spending opportunity. Sally Mueller, Co-Founder and CEO of Womaness, says it best in her interview with Bloomberg:
She’s the wealthiest, healthiest, most active generation and only 5% of advertising dollars are spent directed to her. I get chills thinking about how much money this woman has and how no brands are speaking to her.
Menopausal women are a massively untapped and overlooked group with unmatched spending power.
Competitive Landscape
For the purpose of this narrative, we’ve segmented the menopause beauty market by consumer concerns: skincare, holistic wellness, haircare, and vaginal care.
Skincare: Skincare is one of the most crowded segments in the menopause beauty market, driven by the numerous (and top-priority) unmet skincare needs of menopausal women. Notable skincare-related issues include loss of skin elasticity, more fine lines and wrinkles, dehydrated skin, and discoloration, all of which are driven by the steep declines in estrogen levels. Skincare brands, such as Swiftarc Ventures’ portfolio company Pause Well-Aging, take a science-backed approach to combat skin changes with specially formulated products. Other key players include RoC, Emepelle, No7 Beauty, LaMaria, Caire Beauty, SweetSpot Labs, and Mojo Wellbeing.
Holistic Wellness: This is also an extremely crowded and competitive segment. This “catch-all” category groups together multi-purpose brands spanning skincare, haircare, body care, supplements, sleep aides, and beyond. Brands in the holistic wellness space uniquely meet women at every need state by offering expansive product assortments, a community of support, and educational resources. Holistic wellness brands have one goal in mind: be the go-to, trusted brand for all things menopause. Think Unilever or Procter & Gamble for CPG, Anheuser-Busch for beer, Comcast for media, etc. Key players include Stripes, Wile, O Positiv, Womaness, StellaVia, State Of Menopause, and Kindra.
Haircare: We all know the haircare industry at large is having a moment, yet menopausal haircare has remained somewhat under the radar. Very few brands exist that cater specifically to menopausal women. Consumer education is key for menopausal haircare brands as they fight for market share in a hugely over saturated haircare market. Many women don’t realize that their hair is directly affected by menopause. Sonsoles Gonzalez, Founder and CEO of Better Not Younger notes in an interview with InStyle:
Traditionally, the industry has always focused on covering grays. However, 100% of women will tell you their hair has changed and doesn’t feel the same as they’ve gotten older and they don’t understand why… Companies have been so focused on the most visible signs aging that they haven’t fully thought through what else could be effecting the hair beyond the grays.
Key players include Better Not Younger and Hair Biology. Other notable players that have menopause-friendly products include Plantur, Waterman, Bellisso, Dr. Barbara Sturm and Rene Furterer.
Vaginal Care: This segment is gaining traction as women increasingly vocalize their unmet sexual and vaginal needs during menopause. According to the brand Tabu, 90% of women experience pain or discomfort during sex due to hormonal and lifestyle changes. Scientific advancements have the potential to really move the needle for women’s pleasure, as did E.D. pills for men’s pleasure. Vella recently released the Intimate Elixir, a new menopause product that supplements the body’s natural wetness, representing the power of scientific advancements. Leakproof apparel brands are also popping up in this category, giving bulky, embarrassing adult diapers a run for their money. For vaginal care concerns, consumers value safe-spaces, open conversations, and educational content. Key players include Knix, Modibodi, Tabu, Hazel, Vella, and Attn: Grace.
Winning Attributes
While the competitive landscape is growing, category winners tend to have one or more of the following attributes:
In-Store Placement: Retail placement provides access and visibility to menopause brands in places their core customers frequently visit to effectively boost brand recognition and discovery. Womaness is leading the in-store charge as the first menopause brand to enter Ulta Beauty earlier this year. Their partnership signaled an important moment in retail and will hopefully prompt other retailers to expand selection and cater to the overlooked segment of women 40+. Sally Mueller, Co-Founder and CEO of Womaness comments:
It’s a powerful moment that Ulta Beauty has recognized that women in this stage deserve to take up more space both in life and on shelves at retail.
Purposeful Marketing: Retail presence alone doesn’t result in conversion. According to GenM research, only 1/3 of menopausal women find it easy to navigate menopausal-friendly products in-store. Further, 9/10 women have never seen any marketing for them. There are so many products out there that can help with menopause symptoms, but they are rarely marketed as such. Brands need to be deliberate and unapologetic in their marketing.
Science-Backed, Efficacious Products: Women are being more discerning with their purchases as they become more educated on their physical, mental, and emotional changes. They are looking for real clinical studies (not just a test group of 20 biased participants) and real results. Menopause brands that deliver on promised results, whether that be through proprietary technology and/or high quality formulations, can turn a one-time purchaser into a long-term loyal customer.
Celebration Mindset: Brands must not focus on menopause as a problem but instead as a joyous milestone. Changing the narrative is key as women are already scared and ill prepared for the experience. This can mean removing terms like “anti-aging” and instead using “ageless”. A celebration mindset will help destigmatize menopause and create an environment without fear of judgement or shame. Shoutout to the annual “World Menopause Day” on October 18th for aiding in the celebration!
Education-First Approach: Look at all the successful menopause brands. You’ll notice they all have one key item in common: education. Whether that be in the form of blog posts, discussions, TikTok and Instagram videos, or other resources. Most women have no roadmap or substantial support, so educational pieces can provide great value. Further, most successful brands allow customers to shop by symptom as they increasingly seek out products that target end needs rather than their age or skin type.
An Expansive Product Line: Every woman will have a completely different experience with menopause, driven by their genetics and medical history, so products need to vary too. From itchy skin to head-to-toe hot flashes, there’s no one product that can cure all symptoms. Companies with a wide product assortment have a greater chance at serving all the unique needs of their consumers. That being said, a wide-ranging product line will only succeed if every product is specifically targeted and delivers on results.
Community Driven: As mentioned throughout this narrative, women crave open conversations in safe environment. For instance, Womaness and Better Not Younger both engage their communities through private Facebook groups. Brands that facilitate intimate and authentic connection can drive brand loyalty, awareness, and overall success.
Preventative Measures: We can’t prevent menopause, but we can provide women with actionable steps and solutions to enjoy good health into their menopausal years. Supplement and holistic wellness brands need to start talking to their consumers before menopause hits, otherwise it will likely be too little too late. On the research side, most studies focus on individuals in a disease state; there’s strong opportunity to track hormone levels before menopause hits to guide future product innovation for symptom management, monitoring, and diagnosis.
Conclusion
Yes, the menopause beauty market is becoming crowded, but with 27 million entering the menopause category every year, it’s not a winner-take-all game. As more brands enter the category, society’s awareness and understanding of menopause will grow, and will in turn fuel real change. A change in obsolete taboos and stigmas. A change in underfunded medical resources and research. A change in how employers support their menopausal women. A change in how we talk about and treat menopause.
After studying the menopause beauty market at length, it’s evident that the venture investors play an imperative role in the menopause revolution. The medical community hasn’t supported women in their cries for help. Funding has instead gone to competing healthcare priorities such as fertility and gynecological surgeries. It’s on ventures investors to continue to fund menopause R&D. New menopause brands with sky-high aspirations just don’t have the money to back up their technology and research through valid clinical studies. Further, the current lack of open-source research also provides a barrier for these new startups. Information withholding limits healthy collaboration in the menopause industry, and as a result, we all suffer in the long run. Venture community, let’s continue to fund menopause beauty startups to push research and innovation forward.
There are still countless unmet needs in menopausal beauty. Spending power in this industry is unmatched. The industry is growing like a weed and is finally getting the mainstream attention it deserves. And it’s just the beginning. From increased awareness to innovation to investment, a rising tide lifts all boats.
This article does not reflect Swiftarc Ventures’ immediate plans to invest in this space, but was rather part of a larger research effort to better understand the landscape of menopause beauty, which is a core thesis area.
