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Not a good source of collagen.


I recently got an email with the subject line “Menopause shouldn’t be taboo – this gift can help.”

I wholeheartedly agree that menopause shouldn’t be a taboo subject, and the gift in question might get some women to talk about it, but I think it’s the wrong way to go about it. They say “Le Wren’s Menopause Support Care Package includes easy-to-use luxuries to alleviate common side effects, with a dose of loving self-care”.

They say the Care Package consists of:

  • Cooling Spray – Made with peppermint and menthol oils, this all-natural spray provides instant relief. Fits easily in her handbag or bedside drawer.
  • Arnica Hand & Joint Cream – This rich cream incorporates arnica, an ancient flower used for centuries to treat inflammation to help bring relief.
  • Lavender Eye Pillow – The combination of this pillow’s gentle weight and light lavender aroma help to calm the body and spirit. Can be cooled or heated.
  • Drift Bedtime Balm – This relaxing blend of lavender, chamomile and other natural sleep remedies help induce peaceful rest, naturally.
  • Beauty Bar Chocolate – Because, chocolate. Everyone needs a little dose of chocolate.

And they want you to spend $98 to give this package of quack remedies, questionable products, and placebos to someone you know who is menopausal. If I received the Care Package it would go straight into the trash.

The claims are not backed by scientific evidence and can be disregarded. I don’t agree that “everyone needs chocolate,” and I was appalled by the ingredients of the “Beauty Bar”. It contains ground up sea pearls for collagen, plus monk fruit and rhodiola. Do sea pearls contain collagen? No, of course they don’t. They supposedly contain amino acids that supposedly stimulate the skin to make its own collagen. And if you ate collagen in a chocolate bar, it would just be digested and would not contribute to the body’s store of collagen.

Conclusion: This is all just too silly

It gets even sillier: they also sell a “Feel-Good Roll On“. Don’t waste your money. If you know someone with menopausal symptoms, it’s not taboo. Why not talk about it and educate them? Effective remedies are available. Isn’t reality preferable to fantasy? When my husband read about the Care Package, he said it was just a marketing trick designed to separate gullible customers from their money.

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  • Harriet Hall, MD also known as The SkepDoc, is a retired family physician who writes about pseudoscience and questionable medical practices. She received her BA and MD from the University of Washington, did her internship in the Air Force (the second female ever to do so),  and was the first female graduate of the Air Force family practice residency at Eglin Air Force Base. During a long career as an Air Force physician, she held various positions from flight surgeon to DBMS (Director of Base Medical Services) and did everything from delivering babies to taking the controls of a B-52. She retired with the rank of Colonel.  In 2008 she published her memoirs, Women Aren't Supposed to Fly.

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Posted by Harriet Hall

Harriet Hall, MD also known as The SkepDoc, is a retired family physician who writes about pseudoscience and questionable medical practices. She received her BA and MD from the University of Washington, did her internship in the Air Force (the second female ever to do so),  and was the first female graduate of the Air Force family practice residency at Eglin Air Force Base. During a long career as an Air Force physician, she held various positions from flight surgeon to DBMS (Director of Base Medical Services) and did everything from delivering babies to taking the controls of a B-52. She retired with the rank of Colonel.  In 2008 she published her memoirs, Women Aren't Supposed to Fly.

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