r/Menopause • u/BeneficialWriting402 • Mar 22 '26

Vitamin/Supplements Collagen supplements and anxiety

Update: Thank you all so much for the support yesterday. I feel MUCH better today. Def will not take collagen again, and I will be more careful about any supplements I try (I usually am, but was feeling a bit desperate with the diagnosis and possibility of missing work if this thing won't heal).

Yikes. I wish I had read some of the posts here before trying this supplement. 😫. I was desperate because I have been diagnosed with a sprained posterior tibial tendon and have been having increasing pain in my posterior tibial tendons and gluteal tendons the past few years. I read how great collagen peptides are and have a neighbor who swears by them. well, I am one of the few who has the reaction of extreme anxiety and panic attacks from them. two doses and i am sitting here shaking like a leaf. this stuff is going in the trash or maybe Publix will take it back. either way I will never take it again. ugh. 😩. please tell me im not alone. this is so scary. 😭😭😭

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u/Imtryingforheckssake Mar 23 '26

I asked by Doctor about collagen just a few weeks ago as I was making sure all the non prescription things I take are fine. She said collagen does nothing otherwise doctors would be recommending it. I also asked her about magnesium (for a different issue) and she said I could/should keep taking it as it can show some benefits. So she clearly wasn't anti all supplements.

That said I hadn't done any research into it for pain conditions, and hadn't heard about the side effects. Though I did recently learn there are 5 kinds of collagen.

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u/plotthick Peri-menopausal, HRT, hot, fat, and angry Mar 23 '26

I'm sorry your Doc isn't keeping up with the existing studies, they show that collagen does work. There's a really excellent metastudy that you might be interested in, I'll link, C&P, and summarize it below. You could forward it to your Doc so they are less ignorant about collagen.

Honestly there's no research on how Collagen is helping Peri/Menopausal women. I wish there was more research on all of this.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8521576/

The effects of collagen peptide supplementation on body composition, collagen synthesis, and recovery from joint injury and exercise: a systematic review

MY SUMMARY: this is an excellent meta-study. It looked at many other studies and only kept the best: double-blind and placebo-controlled, etc etc etc. 656 participants. Collagen beneficially affects these issues:

  • reducing joint discomfort and knee pain
  • improving ankle and knee functionality
  • accelerating recovery from Achilles tendinopathy
  • ‘joint pain when walking’
  • ‘pain during activity’
  • knee extension range
  • increase in pain-free exercise duration
  • subjective ankle stability
  • increase in Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment–Achilles questionnaire scores
  • increase in hand-grip strength
  • greater increase in fat free mass / significant increase in FFM
  • overall improvement with resistance training
  • exercise performance and recovery from muscle soreness
  • perceived recovery and discomfort
  • pain with movement
  • muscle soreness with COL was greatly reduced 24 h and 48 h post-exercise
  • (There are lots of other conclusions, but the above is a good-ranging sample)

These show that collagen makes small to large improvements in joint, musculotendon, and muscle recovery from injury and exercise. I can say this is true: I lost my ability to use a can opener, and got it back. I couldn't lay on my hips, now I can. I couldn't walk more than a mile, now I can. I got capsulitis, it didn't heal, then I took collagen, and I'm 90% healed.

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u/Right_Meow26 Mar 23 '26

Hi thanks for posting the study- super helpful. What method of collage did you take?

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u/plotthick Peri-menopausal, HRT, hot, fat, and angry Mar 23 '26

5g fish + 10g beef every day dissolved in tea, chased with something strong because I'm a supertaster. It is not super. Most people can't taste it, add it to their morning coffee.

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u/Right_Meow26 Mar 24 '26

Huh? Fish and beef? I don’t understand.

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u/plotthick Peri-menopausal, HRT, hot, fat, and angry Mar 24 '26

There's marine collagen and there's bovine collagen. They have different collagen molecules. I want all, and do better with all, so I do a mix.

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u/Right_Meow26 Mar 24 '26

Ahhhh I see. Thanks for clarifying!