Revive Collagen - Menopause Max Hydrolysed Marine Collagen Drink

What is it?

• Ready-to-drink hydrolysed marine collagen, 10,000mg Type 1 per sachet
• 20 added ingredients: reishi, lutein, selenium, pine bark, folic acid, zinc, vitamins B6, B12, C, D, E, K
• Sold as an "all-in-one" beauty and wellbeing drink for menopausal and post-menopausal women

Claims that go beyond the evidence

• Selenium and folic acid for hot flushes: no proof
• Lutein for vaginal dryness: no proof
• Reishi boosts oestrogen and progesterone: no proof in menopausal women
• Pine bark for skin: evidence too weak to say
• Skin benefits promoted without mentioning that the strongest independent study found no effect
• Bone claims lean on studies that used a different, specific product, not this one

What do the guidelines say?

• No menopause guideline recommends collagen
• NICE NG23 (Nov 2024): focuses on HRT, lifestyle and non-hormonal options, no mention of collagen [1]
• NAMS 2023: insufficient evidence to recommend supplements; not recommended at Levels I-II [2]
• BMS, BSSM, EMAS, IMS: no guidance on collagen

What does the evidence say?

Skin

• Older studies looked good: collagen seemed to improve skin moisture and stretchiness [3][4]
• But in 2025 the most careful independent review checked who paid for each study [5]
• When they removed the studies funded by collagen companies, the benefit basically vanished
• Their conclusion: there's currently no solid proof collagen helps ageing skin
• Most studies also tested women of all ages, not menopausal women specifically

Bones

• This is the more convincing part. Collagen, taken with calcium and vitamin D, seems to help bone strength [6]
• The best study: 131 women past menopause took 5g daily for a year and saw real improvements in bone density [7]
• But the catch: those studies used very specific collagen products at set doses, taken with calcium and vitamin D, not this drink

Hot flushes, vaginal dryness, hormones

• The brand says selenium and folic acid ease hot flushes, lutein helps dryness, and reishi boosts your hormones
• We found no proper trials backing any of that
• Pine bark (claimed for skin) has been tested a lot, but a major review found the evidence too weak to say anything [8]

Hair and fatigue

• The added vitamins can carry general "supports energy" labels, but there's no proof this product eases menopause tiredness or helps hair

Bottom Line

The basic idea is true: menopause does speed up collagen loss, and that affects your skin and bones. What the marketing does is take a real problem and suggest a tropical-flavoured sachet fixes it.

• Skin: looked promising until the best independent study stripped out the company-funded research, and the benefit mostly disappeared
• Bones: more genuinely interesting, but it relies on a specific product taken with calcium and vitamin D, not this drink
• The menopause symptoms it's really sold on, hot flushes, dryness, hormones, have nothing solid behind them

If you want collagen for your skin and bones, the honest truth is the independent science is weaker than the label suggests. If you're buying it to cool hot flushes or ease dryness, the proof simply isn't there, and HRT or a chat with your GP would do far more.

References

1. NICE. Menopause: identification and management. NICE Guideline NG23. Updated November 2024. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng23 (Clinical guideline, no PMID.)
2. The North American Menopause Society. 2023 Nonhormone Therapy Position Statement. Menopause 2023;30(6):573-590. https://menopause.org/professional/educational-materials/position-statements (Clinical guideline, no PMID.)
3. de Miranda RB et al. Int J Dermatol 2021;60:1449-1461. PMID: 33742704. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijd.15518
4. Pu SY et al. Nutrients 2023;15(9):2080. PMID: 37432180. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15092080
5. Myung SK, Park Y. Am J Med 2025;138(9):1264-1277. PMID: 40324552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2025.04.034
6. Sun C et al. Front Nutr 2025;12:1646090. PMID: 41049371. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1646090
7. König D et al. Nutrients 2018;10(1):97. PMID: 29337906. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10010097
8. Robertson NU et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2020;9(9):CD008294. PMID: 32990945. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD008294.pub5

‍