How much vitamin D should women in perimenopause take?

In the UK, 10 micrograms (400 IU) a day. The advice is to consider it through autumn and winter, and to take it all year if you get little sun or have darker skin. Perimenopause does not raise the number.

• UK advice is 10 micrograms a day, written as 400 IU on most labels. There is no separate, higher UK figure for perimenopause.
• Year-round is advised for anyone who is rarely outdoors, covers most of their skin, or has darker skin, because sunlight is the main source and those groups make less from it.
• The largest trial gave postmenopausal women calcium together with vitamin D. Hip bone density rose slightly and hip fractures did not fall significantly, so it cannot tell us what vitamin D did on its own.

The number

Ten micrograms a day. On a UK label that is usually printed as 400 IU, and sometimes as 10 µg or 10 mcg. It is the figure UK health advice gives to all adults, and it comes from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition's 2016 review [4].

The NHS advice has two parts, and both matter [3]. Between about October and March, sunlight in the UK is too weak for skin to make much vitamin D, so everyone is advised to consider a daily 10 microgram supplement through those months. And some people are advised to take it all year round: anyone who is rarely outdoors, who covers most of their skin when outside, or who has darker skin, since darker skin makes less vitamin D from the same sunlight.

There is no separate UK recommendation for women in perimenopause. The general adult figure is the figure.

The NHS also gives an upper limit: adults should not take more than 100 micrograms (4,000 IU) a day from supplements [3]. That is a ceiling, not a target. Higher doses are sometimes prescribed to correct a measured deficiency, which is a different situation from topping up an ordinary diet, and a GP decides it.

What vitamin D is authorised to say it does

Vitamin D contributes to the maintenance of normal bones, to normal muscle function, to the normal function of the immune system, and to the normal absorption and use of calcium and phosphorus. Those are GB-authorised health claims, and a product may carry them when it supplies enough of the nutrient to meet the conditions set in the register.

They are statements about a nutrient doing its ordinary job in a body of any age. None is a claim about perimenopause, and a food supplement may not claim to act on a medical condition.

Why perimenopause comes up at all

Bone turnover speeds up around the menopausal transition, and the years either side of the final period are when women lose bone fastest. That is why vitamin D and calcium are discussed together in this context more than in others. What the nutrient does has not changed; the reason to make sure you are getting enough has.

It is worth keeping two things apart. The general guidance is about not being short of vitamin D. It is not evidence that a supplement produces a specific benefit in perimenopause.

What the trials found

The largest randomised trial gave 36,282 postmenopausal women either 1,000 mg of calcium with 400 IU of vitamin D3 daily or a placebo, and followed them for an average of seven years. Hip bone density was 1.06 per cent higher in the supplemented group. Hip fractures were not significantly reduced: the hazard ratio was 0.88, with a confidence interval from 0.72 to 1.08. A hazard ratio below 1 means fewer events, and an interval that includes 1 means the difference could be chance. The risk of kidney stones rose. In a secondary analysis limited to the women who kept taking the tablets, the hip fracture hazard ratio was 0.71, though an analysis of adherent participants is not the same as the randomised comparison [1].

A later meta-analysis of eight trials, covering 30,970 people, reported a 15 per cent relative reduction in total fractures and a 30 per cent relative reduction in hip fractures with calcium plus vitamin D [2]. Its authors note that it draws on a subgroup analysis of the trial above, so the two results are not independent of each other.

Two limits apply to both. They tested calcium and vitamin D together, so neither can say what vitamin D did alone. And they are trials in postmenopausal women, not in perimenopause.

Read together, that is a real but modest effect on bone density and a contested one on fractures.

Choosing a product

For most people, a 10 microgram daily supplement through the darker months, or all year if you are in one of the groups above, is the straightforward reading of UK advice, and it is inexpensive. Higher-strength products at 1,000 IU and above are widely available; they are the right choice when a GP has measured a deficiency and advised a higher dose, and not otherwise.

Vitamin D is fat-soluble, so a softgel in oil or a tablet taken with a meal containing some fat is a reasonable default. Sprays and drops suit people who dislike tablets. If you take a multivitamin or a calcium product, check whether it already contains vitamin D so you are not doubling up.

Where this leaves you

Take the UK figure, all year if you are in one of the groups the NHS names, and through autumn and winter otherwise. If you think you may be short of vitamin D, ask your GP, who can test and advise a dose if one is needed. For bone through the transition, the things with the most support are loading exercise, enough protein and calcium from food, not smoking, and a conversation about HRT with a clinician if it is appropriate for you. A vitamin D supplement sits alongside those, not in place of them.

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