Menoelle

Menoelle (styled in lowercase as "menoelle®") is a German brand of hormone-free products for women going through menopause. It belongs to PhytoLife Pharma GmbH, a company based in Berlin [1]. The range centres on dietary supplements built around EstroG-100, a patented blend of three Korean plant roots, and also takes in intimate-care products and a small hair-care line. The brand reached the German market in 2019 [11] and has since spread to several other European countries.

What sets Menoelle apart from many menopause brands is its Korean link. The key ingredient comes from traditional Korean herbal medicine, the owning company was set up as a joint venture of a South Korean group, and a 2022 report in The Korea Times described Menoelle as a product of the Korean firm Naturalendo Tech, with PhytoLife handling its marketing in Europe [10]. The brand presents itself as plant-based and, unusually for the category, free of phytoestrogens, the plant compounds that mimic the body's own estrogen.

The company behind Menoelle, PhytoLife Pharma GmbH, was founded in 2017. According to the brand's English-language website, it was created as a joint venture of Natura Life Group, which it says has worked in South Korea for more than 15 years and specialises in developing and making hormone-free products for women in menopause [2]. Its chief executive, Patrick Schmick, founded PhytoLife Pharma in 2017 and is also a co-founder of the Korean-based NaturaLife Asia Group and part of its management, The Korea Times reported. No source names a separate founder of the Menoelle brand itself.

The founding date depends on what is being dated. Menoelle's own website gives no year for the brand; the years it does give, both 2017, are the founding of the company and the European approval of its core ingredient. Two outside sources place the brand's start later. The German pharmacy trade publication apotheke adhoc reported in October 2019 that a Berlin company had just brought a new product called MenoElle onto the market [11], and The Korea Times dated the product's European launch to 2019 [10]. This article follows 2019 as the year the brand launched, while noting that the company behind it dates from 2017.

The 2019 trade report named the launching company as Phytolife Nutrition, with photographs credited to Phytolife Nutrition GmbH [11]. The brand's current website uses the name PhytoLife Pharma GmbH. No source explains the difference between the two names.

The story of Menoelle begins with its ingredient, which is older than the brand. EstroG-100 is a mix of root extracts from three plants long used in Korea: Cynanchum wilfordii, Phlomis umbrosa and Angelica gigas, the last also known as Korean angelica. According to the brand, the blend was patented in 2008 and then introduced in Asia, the United States, Canada and Australia as a hormone-free and estrogen-free plant extract [3]. The 2019 trade report adds that the patent was granted in South Korea, that the extract is obtained by hot-water extraction, and that the three plants have no medical use in Germany, where they are at most grown as ornamentals.

The step that made a European brand possible came in 2017. That year, EstroG-100 was approved as a novel food by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which allowed it to be sold in Europe. EFSA considers an intake of up to 175 mg a day safe for a person weighing 70 kg, apotheke adhoc noted [11].

The first product, a tablet for menopausal symptoms, went on sale in Germany in 2019. Alongside EstroG-100 it contained calcium, zinc, vitamins C and D and a group of B vitamins. In its launch report, apotheke adhoc set the company's claims for each nutrient against independent guidance. It pointed out, for example, that a lack of vitamin C or vitamin B6 is rare in healthy people, and that high-dose biotin can distort laboratory test results, so doctors should be told when a patient takes it.

The brand then expanded within Europe. In an October 2022 interview, Schmick said Menoelle was sold throughout Germany via pharmacies, drugstores and online pharmacies, and that it had also been offered in the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland since the previous year [10]. At the same time he announced launches in France and the United Kingdom for early 2023, and said the brand's products would be available in all European countries by the end of 2025. Whether those launches took place is not documented.

In 2022 the company also had its hair-care line tested. A study of the HAIR med shampoo and scalp tonic ran at the P&K Skin Research Center from 24 March to 6 May 2022, according to the brand. Around the same period, Menoelle built up a set of information channels about menopause: an online magazine called Menomag, a self-assessment called Menotest, webinars, a section for healthcare professionals, and a six-part web series, "Frauen im Wechsel" ("Women in transition"), made with the German menopause magazine Lemondays and its editor-in-chief Angela Löhr.

Menoelle's ownership is described differently depending on the source. The brand's own website, updated in 2026, states plainly that menoelle is a brand of PhytoLife Pharma GmbH from Germany [1]. The Korea Times, writing in 2022, called it "Naturalendo Tech's 'Menoelle'" and described PhytoLife Pharma as the Berlin-based company marketing Naturalendo Tech's products under the Menoelle brand in Europe [10]. The two accounts may both be true, with one company developing or supplying the products and the other owning and marketing the brand in Europe, but no source settles the question.

PhytoLife Pharma is based in Berlin. It describes itself, in the words of its chief executive, as a company that researches, develops and makes medical products and digital applications for women's health, with a focus on menopause. No sister brands are documented.

Menoelle frames its whole range around one idea: support during menopause without hormones and without phytoestrogens. Its German slogan, "Damit ich einfach ich sein kann", appears on the English site as "Helping me to be me again". The company says its product family is meant for women who value naturalness and consciously want to avoid phytoestrogens, and that its aim is to meet exactly those wishes. Three short labels sit at the top of its website: without phytoestrogens, vegan, and from nature.

The ingredient is central to that message. Menoelle presents EstroG-100 as good news for women in menopause who are looking for dietary supplements without phytoestrogens and isoflavones, and the word "hormone-free" appears throughout its website and product pages.

According to Schmick, the brand's growth in Europe rested on "emotional marketing concepts", strong consumer campaigns and close cooperation with doctors and pharmacists. That mix is visible in how the brand presents itself. Its products are sold through pharmacies, where the company says staff can advise on the full range, through drugstores and online retailers, and through its own web shop, which delivers to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2022 Schmick appeared at Expopharm, a pharmacy trade fair, alongside Jalid Sehouli, director of gynaecology at Charité hospital in Berlin.

The company stresses safety and quality. It says all ingredients are selected and checked for safety, that its formulas follow current scientific findings, that its products are made in Germany under strict quality controls, and that its dietary supplements are certified to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), a standard for production quality. It does not name the certifying body, and no other third-party certifications are documented.

Most of the range is made up of tablets and capsules. The core menoelle tablet for menopause combines EstroG-100 with a nutrient complex. Menoelle PLUS adds selected vitamins and saffron extract. Menoelle NIGHT intense, aimed at sleep, pairs EstroG-100 with melatonin and Quatrefolic, a branded form of folate. Menoelle FLORA INTIM is a capsule taken by mouth that contains biotin and a blend of lactic acid bacteria.

The brand also sells products for intimate health. Menoelle vaginal gel is a moisturiser for vaginal dryness, a common complaint during menopause. The company says the gel contains no dyes, fragrance, glycerin, petroleum derivatives or parabens, and that it is clinically tested. Menoelle OVULA med CERVIRON is a vaginal suppository that, according to the brand, supports the healing and protection of the vaginal lining in cases of infection, odour and pH imbalance.

The only cosmetic line is HAIR med, a shampoo, conditioner and tonic against thinning hair for women over 30. The company describes it as medical hair care and says it contains a complex of 22 plant extracts drawn from Korean herbal medicine. According to Menoelle, its clinical testing found that daily use significantly reduced hair loss after three to six weeks, improved shine by 21 percent and reduced scalp oil by 86 percent [5]. These results come from the company and the test institute it names; no independent review of them is documented.

EstroG-100 itself carries the strongest claims. Menoelle calls it a patented plant extract and one of the most successful plant extracts from South Korea, and says products containing it have long been sold in the United States, Canada and South Korea. In the 2022 interview, Schmick went further, describing EstroG-100 as the only herbal active ingredient recognised worldwide and supported by multiple clinical studies, which he said relieves 12 menopausal symptoms without hormones or side effects [10]. The newspaper reported these as the chief executive's own statements.

The awards that Menoelle lists on its website were given to its ingredient, not to the brand. They are a 2008 gold medal at the Inventions Geneva fair in Switzerland, a 2011 product award in South Korea and a 2014 Best Botanical Award in the United States, all for EstroG-100.

Press coverage of the brand itself is limited. It consists mainly of the 2019 launch report in apotheke adhoc, a German pharmacy trade publication, and the 2022 business article in The Korea Times, which was based on an interview with Schmick.

Menoelle is active. Its website was updated in 2026 and runs a working web shop alongside sales through pharmacies and drugstores. The supplement and intimate-care ranges show no sign of being wound down. The hair-care line is less certain: in 2026 the HAIR med conditioner and tonic were offered at reduced prices because of their short remaining shelf life, with a best-before date of October 2025, and the complete HAIR med set was sold out. This may point to the line being phased out, but the company has not said so.