Three rulebooks, one shelf

Here is something that makes no sense until you know the rule behind it.

One product on our Comfort shelf is permitted to tell you it gives fast, long-lasting relief from dryness, burning and itching. Another product, from the same brand, with the same family name on the box, is not allowed to tell you it relieves anything at all.

Neither is being coy. They are in different legal categories, and the categories decide what may be said.

Category one: the food supplement

Most of what is sold for menopause is a food supplement. Legally it is a food. It is not assessed by anyone before it goes on sale, and its manufacturer does not have to prove it works.

In exchange for that low bar, it gets the tightest speech rules of the three. It may only use health claims from the government's authorised register, and that register contains nothing about menopausal symptoms. It may not say it treats, prevents or relieves anything — the moment it does, it stops being a food and becomes an unlicensed medicine.

What to expect on the page: ingredients, doses, and careful sentences about nutrients contributing to normal functions.

Category two: the registered traditional herbal remedy

This is the middle ground, and it is the one almost nobody explains.

The MHRA runs a registration scheme for herbal products with a long history of traditional use. A registered product may say what it is used to relieve — including menopausal symptoms — but it must carry a mandatory qualifier stating the claim is based exclusively on long-standing use as a traditional remedy, not on clinical evidence.

That qualifier is the whole point. It is the regulator saying: people have used this for a long time, and we are letting the product say so, but nobody has proven it works.

Registered black cohosh products exist for relief of menopausal symptoms including hot flushes and night sweats. Registered sage products exist for excessive sweating associated with the menopause. These are real, and they are lawful.

The trap: the registration attaches to one specific product, at one specific dose and extract. A food supplement containing the same herb may not use that wording. Same plant, same shelf, completely different legal position — decided entirely by whether somebody went through the process.

So if you see a herbal supplement making a confident relief claim with no “traditionally used” qualifier anywhere, one of two things has happened. Either it is not registered and should not be saying it, or it is registered and somebody has quietly dropped the inconvenient half of the sentence.

What to expect on the page: a THR number, and that mandatory qualifier in plain sight.

Category three: the medical device

A medical device works physically rather than pharmacologically — it moisturises, lubricates, forms a barrier, holds moisture in place. It has to be assessed and carry a conformity marking before it goes on sale, and it must be registered with the MHRA before it reaches the market.

Having cleared that bar, it may make claims within its approved purpose. Actual claims, about actual relief.

This is why CanesMeno Hydration & Comfort Gel reads so differently from the CanesMeno tablets. Bayer markets the gel as a medical device, and describes it as providing relief from vaginal dryness, itching and burning associated with menopause, lasting up to five days from a single application, hormone-free and compatible with HRT. The tablets are a food supplement and follow every restriction in category one.

Same brand. Same shelf. Two rulebooks.

What to expect on the page: the words “medical device”, and an instruction to read the label.

The cosmetic, briefly

A fourth category worth recognising: cosmetics. Intimate washes, moisturisers sold for comfort rather than symptom relief. They may make appearance and comfort claims but not medical ones. If a product is sold as a cosmetic and is telling you it treats a condition, it is in the wrong category for the claim it is making.

How to use this in ten seconds

When a product claims relief, look for its category, which will be stated somewhere on the packaging or the page:

• “Medical device” — it has been through an assessment. The claim is allowed.
• A THR number and “traditionally used” — registered on the basis of long use, not proof. The claim is allowed, with that caveat attached.
• “Food supplement” — no assessment, tightest rules. A relief claim here should not be there.
• Nothing stated at all — that is your answer.

It takes a moment, it costs nothing, and it tells you more about a product than any amount of packaging design.

Why we set it out this way

Because the honest version of this category is not “everything works”, and it is not “nothing works”. It is that some products have been through a process and earned the right to make a claim, some have been through a lighter process and earned a qualified one, and most have been through nothing at all — and the packaging works quite hard to stop you noticing the difference.

General information about product regulation, not medical advice. Always read the label on the product you receive. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. Speak to your GP or pharmacist about your own situation.