Should women in perimenopause take collagen supplements?

Not as a default. No product may make a health claim for collagen in Great Britain, and the trials are modest: one 12-month study reported higher bone density in postmenopausal women with low bone density, and skin studies are short and small. If you want to try it, 12 weeks at 2.5 to 10 g a day is where the trials looked; if you do not, nothing here says you are missing out.

• No authorised health claim exists for collagen. That is a statement about what may be claimed, not a finding that it does nothing.
• A 12-month randomised trial of 5 g of specific collagen peptides in 131 postmenopausal women with low bone density reported higher bone density at the spine and femoral neck than placebo.
• Skin studies typically run 8 to 12 weeks and are small, and a substantial share are industry-funded. How noticeable their measured effects are to a person is not established.

What may be claimed

Collagen has no authorised health claim in Great Britain: not for skin, not for joints, not for bone [2]. A product may state what it contains and may use authorised claims for other nutrients it also contains, such as vitamin C, but it may not claim a health benefit for the collagen itself.

That is a statement about the rules, not about the evidence. The two are different, and this page keeps them apart. The studies below concern particular collagen preparations, populations and outcomes, and they do not establish that collagen supplements generally benefit women in perimenopause.

How it is thought to work

Collagen is a protein. When you swallow it, it is digested into amino acids and short peptides, as any protein is, so it does not travel intact to your skin. The hypothesis the trials test is that some of those peptide fragments act as a signal to the cells that build connective tissue. That is a plausible mechanism, and it is what the trial evidence is about.

The bone trial

The largest study in postmenopausal women gave 131 women either 5 grams of specific collagen peptides daily or a placebo for twelve months. All had age-related reduction in bone density at the start. In the collagen group, T-scores rose at both the spine and the femoral neck relative to the control group, and bone-formation and bone-resorption markers shifted in the corresponding direction [1].

A hundred and two women completed it, and all randomised participants were included in the analysis. One of the authors is affiliated with a collagen research institute, which the paper discloses, and that is worth knowing when a single trial carries most of the weight.

It is a bone study in women selected for low bone density, not a skin study, and it is in postmenopausal rather than perimenopausal women.

Skin

Trials of oral collagen peptides on skin exist. They typically run 8 to 12 weeks at doses between 2.5 and 10 grams a day, and report changes in instrument-measured elasticity and hydration. They are mostly small, mostly short, and a substantial share are funded by ingredient manufacturers. Our skin page reviews them with their sources; the summary is that the measured average effect is positive and that how noticeable it is to a person has not been established.

Skin collagen density does fall in the years around the menopausal transition, which is why the subject comes up here. That is a reason the question is asked, not evidence that a supplement answers it.

If you decide to try it

The trials cluster between 2.5 and 10 grams a day, taken for at least eight to twelve weeks, so that is the window in which any effect would be expected to show. Hydrolysed collagen peptides are the studied form. Marine and bovine sources both appear in the literature; marine is unsuitable for anyone with a fish allergy, and bovine for some dietary preferences. Vitamin C carries an authorised claim for contributing to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin, which is why the two are often sold together; that claim is about vitamin C, not about a collagen supplement.

Collagen lacks tryptophan, so it is not a complete protein and should not be counted toward your protein needs. Adequate protein across the day comes first: a consensus range for adults over 65 is 1.0 to 1.2 g per kg of body weight [3], and it is commonly applied to midlife as well.

Where this leaves you

Collagen is not something we recommend as a default, and no product may claim a benefit for it. If you want to try it, the trials suggest 12 weeks at 2.5 to 10 g a day is where any effect would show, with modest expectations. If you would rather not, nothing in this evidence says you are missing out. Get your protein from food first.

Published by: Suggestic Inc, herstack.co.uk. The HerStack editors. 2026-09-26. This page has not been reviewed by a clinician.