Marketing outpacing science on 2 women's health issues

"Hair wellness" nutraceutical & "the menopause estrogen face cream epidemic"

If you watch much TV, you must have seen the Nutrafol commercials. If not, here’s one:

The company says “Nutrafol pioneered the hair wellness category with its integrative approach to hair health, using natural ingredients to target root causes of thinning hair - like stress, hormones, lifestyle and nutrition."

They have a “Shed the Silence” campaign to help women with their “hair struggles…hair journeys…stigma.”

Jen Gunter, MD, shed her silence about her concerns about Nutrafol some time ago. She’s an OB/GYN who is very active writing about women’s health issues.

Three months ago she wrote, “Nutrafol is linked with liver injury.” Excerpt:

As a report was recently published linking Nutrafol with a severe case of drug-related liver injury, it seems like now is a good time to take a closer look.

The case was written up in the American Journal of Gastroenterology and details a 26-year-old woman who presented with jaundice, a yellowing of the skin, and the whites of the eyes that can be a sign of liver disease. Her blood tests indicated liver injury, and a thorough exam, blood work, and imaging studies ruled out medical conditions and viral infections as the cause. She reported drinking mullerian leaf tea, and her dermatologist had recommended Nutrafol, which she had been taking for five months. Based on the timeline and the test results, her medical team felt that Nutrafol was the most likely cause of her liver failure. She stopped it and fortunately recovered.

She acknowledges that it’s only one case report, but that no one knows if that’s a 1-in-a-million risk or 1-in-a-thousand or better or worse. But she points out that Nutrafol has 23 ingredients. She wrote:

Imagine if a pharmaceutical company created a medication with 23 active ingredients and pushed it out into the world without safety data. There would be an uproar! But of course, that’s not allowed because, unlike supplements, pharmaceuticals actually have to show data about safety and efficacy.

She challenges the company’s claims of “clinical studies,” providing a detailed list of questions about almost all of them. She concluded:

Like many supplements—sorry, I mean nutraceuticals—there is a lot of flashy advertising and little else behind the curtain. Sadly, people are paying a lot of money to play the liver injury lottery, and really, we all deserve better.

Last month, Dr. Gunter wrote that she had emailed the company but heard nothing back. She concluded:

No quality study shows Nutrafol works. Honestly, what they pass off as supporting studies on their website is the medical equivalent of “My mom likes my product.”

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Dr. Gunter also recently dissected the marketing of another product line.

Excerpt:

It’s menopause telemedicine companies and many menopause influencers who are profiting from this new inadequately studied supposed anti-aging wonder drug–topical estrogen cream. And since most of the promoted products are compounded hormones, they are free of that pesky Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight.

Nice.

Look, I’m sure many of you have seen the videos of menopause influencers, including doctors, dabbing estrogen cream on their faces and making bold claims about the product. I know I have. However, they never seem to mention that it’s inadequately studied; in fact, it is woefully understudied. And yet, I have seen those same menopause influencers rail against the system that produces understudied, inadequate therapies for women. Hypocrisy much? It sure seems that for some influencers, the need for women to have quality science is flexible based on what is making money or getting a video to go viral. And right now the gold rush is fueled by estrogen face cream. …

If a company believes in the product so much, do the studies. And preferably BEFORE selling it to women. To me, it is the definition of patriarchy to capitalize on how society treats women as they age by selling a grossly understudied estrogen face cream. But I get it, the road to quality science is expensive, and maybe some people think that women are just not worth that effort and expense.

If you don’t follow Jen Gunter, you should.

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