The Washington Post ran a piece last week about the marketing onslaught targeting women in perimenopause and menopause. Lotions, serums, gadgets, supplements. All promising to fix what declining oestrogen is doing to your body. The doctors' message: be very, very sceptical.
It made me think about collagen. Because if there's one supplement marketed at our demographic with almost religious fervour, it's collagen.
I went to a dermatology talk last week. And what the dermatologist said tracks exactly with what the research shows when you strip out the noise.
So let's talk about it.
What's actually happening to your skin
Here's the part that's real. During perimenopause and menopause, declining oestrogen accelerates collagen loss. Research shows women can lose up to 30% of their skin collagen in the first five years after menopause, with a further 2% decline each year after that. Skin gets thinner, drier, less elastic. That's real biology, not marketing.
So the instinct to do something about it makes complete sense. The question is whether swallowing collagen is that something.
Why ingested collagen is a problem
When you eat collagen (powder, drink, capsule, gummy, whatever), your digestive system breaks it down. Because that's what digestive systems do. The collagen protein gets broken apart into amino acids and small peptides in your stomach and small intestine.
Some of those peptides do make it into your bloodstream. That part is true. Small collagen-derived peptides have been detected in blood plasma after ingestion.
But here's the problem.
Your body doesn't take those amino acids and think "right, she wants better skin, let's send these straight to the face." It distributes them wherever it decides protein is needed most. That could be your muscles. Your bones. Your tendons. Your gut lining. Harvard's Nutrition Source puts it plainly: there's a lack of research showing that collagen you eat will directly benefit your skin. No human studies have clearly proved that ingested collagen ends up in your skin.
You're essentially eating an expensive protein and hoping your body routes it to the right postcode.
What the research actually says (when you read the fine print)
Yes, there are meta-analyses showing collagen supplements improve skin hydration and elasticity. A 2023 review of 26 randomised controlled trials found statistically significant improvements. Sounds promising.
But a 2025 meta-analysis published in The American Journal of Medicine did something the earlier reviews didn't. It looked at 23 RCTs with 1,474 participants and then broke the results down by funding source and study quality.
The findings were striking.
When you looked only at studies not funded by supplement companies, collagen supplements showed no effect on skin hydration, elasticity, or wrinkles. When you looked only at high-quality studies, again, no significant effect.
The authors' conclusion: there is currently no clinical evidence to support the use of collagen supplements to prevent or treat skin ageing.
The positive results in earlier meta-analyses were driven disproportionately by industry-funded, lower-quality studies.
This doesn't mean collagen is harmful. It's protein. It's fine. But spending £30 to £60 a month on collagen drinks when the independent evidence doesn't support the skin claims? That's worth knowing.
What actually works
The advice from the dermatology talk was refreshingly boring. Three things.
Moisturise cheaply
Use a basic, affordable moisturiser. Think Aldi, not Selfridges. More expensive doesn't mean more effective. It usually means more products in the formulation, which doesn't equal better outcomes for your skin. A simple moisturiser that supports your skin barrier and prevents water loss is doing the heavy lifting. Look for one with ceramides. You don't need 14 active ingredients and a fancy bottle.
Use a retinoid or retinol
This is where the evidence is genuinely strong. Retinoids (prescription, like tretinoin) and retinols (over the counter, weaker but still effective) are vitamin A derivatives. They work topically, directly on your skin, and they do two things that actually matter. They stimulate your fibroblasts to produce new collagen. And they inhibit the enzymes (matrix metalloproteinases) that break collagen down.
Unlike swallowed collagen that may or may not reach your skin, retinoids are applied exactly where you want them to work. Decades of research backs this, including randomised controlled trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that tretinoin restores collagen formation in sun-damaged skin.
The prescription version (tretinoin) is stronger but can cause dryness and irritation, especially at first. Over-the-counter retinol is gentler and takes longer to show results (three to six months of consistent use), but it works through the same mechanism. Your GP can prescribe tretinoin. It's not expensive.
Sunscreen. Always sunscreen.
UV exposure is one of the biggest drivers of collagen breakdown. Protecting what you have is just as important as trying to build more.
The bottom line
The perimenopause and menopause product market is booming. And a lot of that boom is built on taking a real problem (yes, you are losing collagen, yes, it matters) and selling you the wrong solution at a premium price.
The collagen you drink gets digested. The retinoid you apply to your skin gets to work where it counts.
Cheap moisturiser. Retinoid. Sunscreen. Boring, affordable, evidence-based.
Not everything that's marketed to us is made for us. Sometimes the best thing you can do is look at the evidence and put your money somewhere it actually works.
Sources
- Myung SK, Park Y. Effects of Collagen Supplements on Skin Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. The American Journal of Medicine. 2025;138(9):1264-1277.
- Pu SY, Huang YL, Pu CM, et al. Effects of Oral Collagen for Skin Anti-Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients. 2023;15(9):2080.
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Collagen. The Nutrition Source. 2024.
- Griffiths CE, et al. Restoration of Collagen Formation in Photodamaged Human Skin by Tretinoin (Retinoic Acid). New England Journal of Medicine. 1993;329(8):530-535.
- Zasada M, Budzisz E. Retinoids: active molecules influencing skin structure formation in cosmetic and dermatological treatments. Advances in Dermatology and Allergology. 2019;36(4):392-397.
- Brincat M, et al. Skin collagen changes in postmenopausal women receiving different regimens of estrogen therapy. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 1987;70(1):123-127.
- Thornton MJ. Estrogens and aging skin. Dermato-Endocrinology. 2013;5(2):264-270.