These Two “Alternative” Menopause Herbs Were Once Official American Medicine for 106 Years
The Midlife Science Review
Menopause, hormones & healthy aging · Published by Still You
Menopause · History · Evidence
These Two “Alternative” Menopause Herbs Were Once Official American Medicine for 106 Years
Black Cohosh and Red Clover were in America’s official book of medicines long before menopause gummies, hormone influencers, wellness podcasts or TikTok existed.
2 bottles · 120 servings · $69 · 90-Day Guarantee · Free U.S. shipping
And more than a century later, women are coming back to the same two plants for one simple reason:
Menopause was never just one symptom. So why are women still being sold one symptom, one bottle at a time?
If your nightstand has started looking like a supplement aisle, read this before you buy another bottle.
The three things most menopause supplement labels hope you never compare
- Black Cohosh and Red Clover are not trendy new herbs. They were part of American medicine more than 200 years ago and remained there for generations.
- Modern research did not make them disappear. It made the formula more interesting. Today we can pair those two old-school menopause herbs with Soy Isoflavones, Ashwagandha and L-Theanine to go after more than hot flashes alone.
- Most women don’t have an ingredient problem. They have a routine problem. One thing for sleep. Another for stress. Another for hot flashes. Another for bloating. Another for weight. Another bottle gets added every time something new starts bothering you.
That is how five $20 “solutions” quietly turn into a $100 drawer full of unfinished experiments.
And that is exactly the problem Still You was built to replace.
Before menopause became an industry, pharmacists already knew these names
Today Black Cohosh and Red Clover are sold as if somebody discovered them on Instagram last year.
They didn’t.
For more than a century, these plants sat inside America’s official medical system.
Not hidden in a health-food store.
Not buried in an herbalist’s notebook.
Official medicine.
- 1820Black Cohosh and Red Clover enter American medicine.Long before the modern supplement industry existed, both were already being used for women’s health.
- 1875Black Cohosh becomes one of America’s best-known women’s herbs.It shows up in wildly popular women’s tonics and becomes part of the everyday language of female health.
- 1926Both herbs disappear from the official book.Not because women suddenly stopped having hot flashes. Not because menopause disappeared. And not because the plants were suddenly proven useless. Medicine changed. The herbs stayed.
- 1989Germany takes Black Cohosh seriously again.Germany’s Commission E formally recognizes Black Cohosh for menopausal complaints.
- TodayWomen are buying the same basic plants all over again.Only now they often buy them separately.
Black Cohosh in one bottle.
Red Clover in another.
Soy somewhere else.
Ashwagandha beside the bed.
L-Theanine for the nights when the brain refuses to shut up.
A probiotic because menopause apparently decided digestion should join the party too.
We looked at that shelf and thought: this is ridiculous.
Black Cohosh was never supposed to do this alone
If menopause only caused one symptom, a one-ingredient formula would make sense.
But that isn’t how women describe it.
They talk about waking up soaked at 3:14 A.M.
Then feeling wired.
Then exhausted.
Then foggy.
Then bloated.
Then irritated at everyone for reasons they cannot explain.
Then wondering why the scale suddenly behaves differently even though their food hasn’t changed.
That is why we did not build Still You around Black Cohosh alone.
One ingredient attacks one piece of the problem. We wanted the formula to feel like menopause was being looked at as a whole.
The idea behind the formula
The 5-System Menopause Stack™
Most menopause supplements are built around one headline symptom. Hot flashes. Sleep. Stress. Digestion. Weight.
Still You was built around the idea that women rarely experience those things one at a time.
Five systems. One gummy. One nightly habit.
2 bottles · 120 servings · $69
Old enough to have history. Modern enough to have human data.
Historical use gets attention.
Human data is what makes you keep reading.
And this is where the story gets harder to dismiss.
The results are not identical across every study, but the same ingredients keep showing up in human menopause research for a reason.
Before You Buy Another Menopause Supplement, Turn the Bottle Around
The prettiest part of a supplement is always on the front.
The truth is usually six-point type on the back.
Here is the question:
Can you tell how much of the ingredient you are actually paying for?
Blend total
Printed
A giant “MENOPAUSE COMPLEX” on the front means nothing if the back says Proprietary Blend: 500 mg and never tells you whether Black Cohosh makes up 400 mg of it or 4 mg.
If they will not print the amount, they are asking you to trust the marketing instead of the label.
You can run these four checks in the store in about a minute.
- Is each amount printed? Look for a number next to each plant. A single number for a “proprietary blend” tells you the total, but not how much of each plant you get.
- Is it the real plant? True black cohosh is Actaea racemosa, which older labels call Cimicifuga racemosa. Cheaper look-alike species have turned up in products sold as black cohosh, so look for the botanical name and for third-party testing.
- How does the amount compare with the studies? It may be lower or higher than the trials used. Either way, you should be able to tell.
- Does it cover more than hot flashes? Menopause and perimenopause can also bring poor sleep, mood changes and stress. See whether the formula includes ingredients that have been studied for those too, and not for hot flashes alone.
We Turned Our Own Bottle Around and Put It Through the Same Test
We built Still You around the same plants, so it should face the same test.
Women were already buying these plants one bottle at a time, so we put them into one gummy that you take at night.
Still You Peri Night Gummies
Tap the label to see it full size.
Still You’s 200 / 200 / 100 Core
500 mg of the three plants at the heart of the menopause formula.
Printed. Measurable. No guessing.
What it does well
2 bottles · 120 servings · $69
Go look at your supplement drawer
Not metaphorically. Actually picture it.
The half-finished magnesium.
The ashwagandha.
The probiotic.
The sleep gummy.
The bottle somebody on TikTok swore would “balance hormones.”
The one you cannot remember why you bought.
The one that ran out three weeks ago and you never reordered.
That drawer is what happens when menopause gets sold symptom by symptom.
One problem. One bottle.
Another symptom. Another bottle.
Another recommendation. Another checkout.
And every purchase feels small.
$19. $24. $31. $18.
Until you realize you have spent hundreds of dollars trying to build a routine nobody ever designed as a routine.
Still You costs less than staying confused.
$69 sounds expensive until you compare it with what women are already doing
Now compare that with:
Black Cohosh bottle
Red Clover bottle
Soy isoflavones
Ashwagandha
L-Theanine
Probiotic
Sleep gummies
Whatever “hormone support” bottle got added last month
You do not need every one of those for the math to get ugly.
Three $20 supplements already cost almost as much as the entire 120-day Still You supply.
The expensive choice may not be trying Still You. The expensive choice may be spending another month assembling menopause support one bottle at a time.
2 bottles · 120 servings · $69
What does “I’ll deal with it later” actually look like?
It sounds harmless.
One more month.
One more bad stretch of sleep.
One more bottle.
One more morning waking up already tired.
One more afternoon wondering why your brain feels two steps behind.
One more dinner where your waistband feels wrong.
One more night peeling the covers off and putting them back on.
One more week telling yourself: “I need to figure out what is going on with me.”
And the cruel part? A month disappears fast. Then another. Then suddenly you have been “meaning to deal with this” for six months.
You have spent the money anyway. You just spent it slowly.
The next 12 weeks are already booked
That day is coming whether you order or not.
You can arrive there having given one simple routine a full 12-week trial.
Or you can arrive there with three more bottles in the drawer and the same question: “What if I had just started when I first read about it?”
You are not deciding whether the next 12 weeks will pass. You are deciding what you will do with them.
If You Are Going to Try It, Do It Long Enough to Know
Six gummies is not a test.
Twelve days is not a test.
Taking it when you remember is not a test.
Give the routine the same thing the research gives these ingredients: time.
Ninety days to decide. Not nine.
A supplement should not force you to make a decision before you have even had enough time to judge it.
So if you order two bottles or more, take one gummy every day. Give it 90 days.
If you get to the end and decide Still You was not worth continuing, use the guarantee.
You give the formula a fair test. We take the financial risk.
90-Day Guarantee on a first order of two or more bottles. Take one gummy a day for 90 days. If it isn’t right for you, email us between Day 90 and Day 120 for a refund. Terms
You can keep building your own menopause stack. Or you can stop.
There is nothing wrong with buying Black Cohosh separately. Or Red Clover. Or Soy Isoflavones. Or Ashwagandha. Or L-Theanine. Or probiotics.
You can build the whole thing yourself. Women already do.
That is exactly why we made Still You.
Because at some point, a kitchen counter full of pills stops feeling “natural.” It starts feeling like work.
Still You takes the ingredients women were already hunting down separately and puts them into one nightly routine.
Black Cohosh.
Red Clover.
Soy Isoflavones.
Ashwagandha.
L-Theanine.
Probiotics.
Plus the supporting botanical blends.
One gummy. Zero grams of sugar. No subscription.
Tomorrow night, you are going to take something, skip something, Google something, or tell yourself you will figure this out later.
Those are all choices. This is simply the easiest one.
Give the next 120 days a fair shot.
2 bottles · 120 servings · $69
START MY 120 DAYS →58¢ tonight is cheaper than another month of guessing.
See all three options ↑ Still reading? Good. You should know exactly what you are buying. See the full product pageIs it right for you?
Who it suits, and who should check with a doctor first.
Still You was built for the woman who is tired of treating menopause one bottle at a time.
Ask your doctor first if you’re pregnant or nursing, on hormone therapy, have a liver condition or a hormone-sensitive condition, or take prescription medicine. It contains soy, so skip it if you have a soy allergy.
How to take it: one gummy a day, at night.
Quick answers
Were black cohosh and red clover really in the U.S. Pharmacopeia?
Yes. They were listed from the first edition in 1820 until 1926. That shows they were a normal part of American pharmacy for a long time. It doesn’t show that they work.
Why were they taken out in 1926?
The Pharmacopeia was rewritten about every ten years, and many plant medicines came off the list in that period as medicine changed. Neither plant was banned, and their removal doesn’t tell us whether they work.
What is Commission E?
It was an expert panel set up by the German government to review herbal medicines. In 1989 it published a paper on black cohosh root and approved it for menopause complaints. That is one country’s expert review, and other groups have since come to more careful conclusions.
Is Still You a hormone? Can it replace hormone therapy?
No. Still You is a non-hormonal dietary supplement. Hormone therapy works well for many women, and that choice belongs with a doctor who knows your history.
How long before I can tell if it works?
Do not judge a 12-week routine in 12 days. The guarantee covers a full 90 days for that reason.
Where can I read the sources?
- Foster S. Black cohosh: a literature review. HerbalGram. 1999;45:35-50. (U.S. Pharmacopeia listing, 1820 to 1926.)
- Commission E. Cimicifugae racemosae rhizoma (black cohosh root). Bundesanzeiger, 1989. English text in: Blumenthal M, et al. The Complete German Commission E Monographs. American Botanical Council; 1998.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Black Cohosh: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals. Link
- Leach MJ, Moore V. Black cohosh for menopausal symptoms. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012. PMID 22972105
- Black cohosh extracts in women with menopausal symptoms: an updated pairwise meta-analysis. Menopause. 2023;30(7):766-773. PMID 37192826
- Osmers R, et al. Efficacy and safety of isopropanolic black cohosh extract for climacteric symptoms. Obstet Gynecol. 2005;105(5):1074-1083. PMID 15863547
- The 2023 nonhormone therapy position statement of The North American Menopause Society. Menopause. 2023;30(6):573-590.
- van de Weijer PH, Barentsen R. Isoflavones from red clover significantly reduce menopausal hot flush symptoms. Maturitas. 2002;42(3):187-193. PMID 12161042
- Jiang W, Wu K. Effectiveness of red clover on hot flash in menopausal women: meta-analysis. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2026. PMID 42269521
- Tice JA, et al. Phytoestrogen supplements for the treatment of hot flashes: the Isoflavone Clover Extract (ICE) Study. JAMA. 2003;290(2):207-214. PMID 12851276
- Taku K, et al. Soybean isoflavones reduce menopausal hot flash frequency and severity. Menopause. 2012;19(7):776-790. PMID 22433977
- Gopal S, et al. Ashwagandha root extract on climacteric symptoms in perimenopausal women. J Obstet Gynaecol Res. 2021;47(12):4414-4425. PMID 34553463
- Hidese S, et al. Effects of L-theanine on stress-related symptoms. Nutrients. 2019;11(10):2362. PMID 31623400
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Study results describe the ingredients as tested in the cited trials, not guaranteed results from Still You. Dr. Miriam Levin, MD, OB-GYN, is a member of the Still You team. This article is advertising written and published by Still You, the maker of the product it describes. Talk to your healthcare provider before starting any supplement.