Menostage is a supplement offered by the manufacturer Nova and is advertised as the ideal remedy for women who have begun experiencing menopause symptoms. The manufacturers state that it can help relieve irritability, depression, insomnia and even reduce forgetfulness. It is said to also be effective against hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and loss of libido. Big claims we thought which made us want to dig a little deeper.
Their website states that these are herbal menopause support pills for women who are starting to experience the early stages of menopause or perimenopause symptoms. We did wonder if this product works for those who are fully into perimenopause and menopause – probably not, but to be honest, we’re not sure.
The positive aspects about these menopause pills are that they don’t include hormones which is great news. They do include good ingredients including Red Clover, Wild Yam, Soy, and Zinc which we know to be helpful for eliminating menopause suffering. Additionally, the formula is vegan friendly which is always a plus in our book. That said, the daily dosage of many of the ingredients is far less than is found in many other products which leaves us concerned that consumers will have to take more to experience the same results.
While we were happy to see the inclusion of a wide range of over 15 ingredients which look impressive on the label we were left wondering about the relevancy of some of these with no real clinical studies to back up their inclusion in the formula. This included Ginseng which has no strong link with easing menopause suffering, and we wonder how effective it is in terms of helping alleviate hot flushes or reducing irritability. Other questionable ingredients include Atriplex halimus, Schizandra Berry and Alfalfa, albeit there is some small connection with these herbs in relieving menopause symptoms, we felt that they could have used more of the well-known, proven ingredients.
Perhaps the most disappointing factor is that this formula doesn’t really address nighttime symptoms, such as night sweats, which seems to be the most challenging symptom of menopause for most women. It always astounds us when a manufacturer doesn’t address both day and night time issues and that these are neglected. Why wouldn’t all supplement manufacturers include a night time supplement to ensure healthy sleep patterns? That’s what we can’t figure out!
This combination is a great start for a good formula, however, we definitely feel that it could be much better if it included other key ingredients that have been clinically shown to help women transition menopause. One small issue we did have with this product was that it isn’t manufactured in an FDA registered lab and is not made in the US. If this is something that doesn’t bother you, then keep reading to find out more.
Is Nova Menostage Effective?
The manufacturer claims that this is an extremely popular product and it comes at a great price. But, in reality, the old adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ comes to mind. Oftentimes, especially when it comes to supplements, cheap usually means poor quality. Given the small daily servings we found in this formula, we feel that this product falls within this category. Chances are for it to be effective you are going to have to double (or even triple) the daily dosage. One of the best indicators of how well this will work is the feedback from people who have used it so we turned to actual customer reviews to see what people really think about it and how well (or not) it worked for them and whether they would recommend it. Unfortunately, this is where we hit a roadblock because we were unable to find any customer reviews on their website, which is a real shame. After perusing sites such as Amazon, we found many mixed reviews.
This was not exactly what we expected to find, but it wasn’t altogether shocking, perhaps this is because of the fact it contains small amounts of key ingredients and many others that have a weak connection with improving symptoms. We are not entirely sure but are definitely left feeling disappointed.
Is Nova Menostage Safe?
In general, this product is marketed as natural and safe. However, we did notice that on their label they have a warning for long term use of vitamin B6 and the side effects if you take too much. Two capsules provide 2.5mg which is fine however, given that many people may need to increase the dosage of this product to experience any sort of significant results, this was a slight red flag for us. At the very least, we suggest keeping a track of exactly how many of these you are taking to ensure that you don’t consume more than the safe daily serving of 10mg of Vitamin B6. At the very least, we would definitely advise consulting with your health care provider before beginning this menopause supplement.
Summary
Overall, Nova Menostage is heading in the right direction and has the potential to be an effective product. It contains some active ingredients that we know are helpful for soothing the challenges of menopause symptoms. However, this supplement also has some pretty hard to ignore disadvantages which would need addressing before we are able to lift this any higher towards our top choice.
Nova Menostage contains some great ingredients namely Black Cohosh, Red Clover, Yam and Zinc which is great news, however, they are in such small amounts that we really wonder just how effective this could be. It could be that people take more to experience more and this is a dangerous practice given that you can overdose. There is also the inclusion of certain ingredients that have very little benefit and we felt that they could have been eliminated altogether and the active beneficial ingredients increased so people would not have to take more.
Additionally, there are some ingredients which are missing from this product that we would love to have seen added such as Protykin® and Rhodiola. Another factor is that there is no inclusion of ingredients to cover symptoms that cover both day and night time symptoms. We know too well that hot flashes and night sweats are the most common complaint from menopausal women so to see a separate night time formula to help promote healthy sleep patterns is what we are looking for (as in our #1 choice).
We liked that the price tag is on the low side, which is always helpful for a cost effective long term solution. However, cheap does not always mean quality – in fact, it usually means the opposite. We were uncomfortable when we noted that there is only a 30-day return policy which really doesn’t give the user a great deal of time to ascertain if this product is helping them or not. We would like to have seen a stronger more confident guarantee. This is a huge negative point for us when we found so many products out there that do offer a money-back guarantee that to find one that doesn’t offer any kind of guarantee is alarming. Does that mean they don’t expect you to experience good results? Are they not confident in the product’s ability? Who knows, we can only guess the answer to this question.
The final point we noticed is while we were impressed that this company follows the international Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), it is not manufactured in the USA. That aside, we know that his company has a good reputation and they manufacture many quality products which we find to be a redeeming feature. We feel that this product was almost there but would need a few tweaks to reach our prime position.
