CSPI urges continued FDA crackdown on supplements marketed as fertility aids

Statement of CSPI president Dr. Peter G. Lurie

For too long, dietary supplement manufacturers have been selling false hope to women and couples who are trying to conceive a baby. Besides making promises on which they can’t deliver, supplement marketers may be diverting women from medical treatments that may actually help, and squandering some of the finite time women have to conceive.

We are glad that the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that they began to crack down on five of these unscrupulous actors. But we strongly hope that it is only a beginning: Our enforcement request to the agencies in November 2019 found 27 companies making such claims on at least 39 products, including three of the companies warned yesterday.

As the FDA and the FTC made plain yesterday, it is illegal for supplement makers to claim their pills or powders can cure, treat, or prevent reproductive conditions that may impair fertility. Companies that continue to sell false hope to women should expect that law enforcement will eventually knock at their doors.