Has there ever been a study done to determine just what is the best multivitamin for women? Is there a difference between products? How can I distinguish what is quality and what is not? What are the standards for determining the top vitamin brand? What are the top 20 multivitamin products?

We will cover all these questions in this short article on the best multivitamin for women supplement made specifically for women.

What Are The Best Multivitamin for Women Products in The World?

Some of these products are designed specifically for a women’s physiology. In other words, as women tend to, generally speaking, need a higher concentration of iron and other vital nutrients in their diet than men, the products below were designed and formulated with those key female needs in mind. Some of these various companies deliberately — and carefully — designed and produced multivitamins according to rigorous pharmaceutical grade quality standards. The majority did not. Some didn’t even create a female only version. Instead, they opted to formulate a generic unisex version instead.

Let’s talk briefly about the table grid below.

After analyzing literally hundreds of products, I cut it down to just 20 — the top 20. You can ignore the rest, essentially.

To explore the information, simply click on the table headers and you can sort the information in a way that is most comfortable to you. To see how these vitamin supplements were scored, this page discusses it in depth. Essentially, a potency score of 75/100 and above coupled with manufacturing in cGMP-certified facilities is highly indicative of the best products. (For more information regarding why cGMP compliance is so important and what it means, there is information below the table grid.)

Obviously, 90 out of 100 or above is an outstanding product — that’s ideal.

The Top 20 Best Multivitamins for Women as of December 21st, 2023

What Does “cGMP” Mean and Why Is It Important in Determining The Best Multivitamin for Women?

So, why is this important? Why is it so important? This is an vitally important indicator of quality. As you can see from the above table, most companies don’t ascribe to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cGMP code for Dietary Supplements. As of June 28, 2010, any companies wishing to sell products in US markets, must be GMP compliant. However, as of late 2011, 70% are still not compliant.

Now, just two years later, about 80% are compliant.The Food and Drug Administration (or FDA) requires that dietary supplement manufacturers in the United States follow what are called “current Good Manufacturing Practices” (cGMP or GMP) for nutrition supplement products (21 CFR, part 111). As you can tell from the table above, not a lot of companies follow these guidelines. In fact, the vast majority did not.

It might be helpful to give a history of GMP compliance. About 2000, the U.S. FDA set about mandating GMP compliance. It took almost 10 years, but in 2006, they began phasing in GMP-compliant standards. In 2009, it became the law of the land. The irony here, though, is that while they codified GMP compliance, they do not enforce it. The supplement industry itself does that with three main organizations although there are others. They are:

• NNFA (Nаtіоnаl Nutritional Food Aѕѕосіаtіоn)
• USP (United States Pharmacopeia)
• NSF (National Sanitation Foundation)

Some have USP GMP-compliance. Some opt for NSF.

For example, with the USP, and In conjunction with the FDA, some companies utilize the enforcement/standards/testing arm of he USP — the United States Pharmacopeial Convention. Quoting directly from their website, “The United States USP Verified – Best Multivitamin for Women Article Pharmacopeia Convention (USP) is a scientific nonprofit organization that sets standards for the identity, strength, quality, and purity of medicines, food ingredients, and dietary supplements manufactured, distributed and consumed worldwide. USP’s drug standards are enforceable in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration, and these standards are developed and relied upon in more than 130 countries” (About USP, para. 1).

Conclusion of The Best Multivitamin for Women Rankings

Xtend-Life does not appear on the USP list. Xtend-Life is headquarted in New Zealand, which is just south of Australia. This is notable as such companies are overseen by the New Zealand Ministry of Health (MIH) and are audited by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, which is a part of the New Zealand MIH. Xtend-Life, for example, has a hazard analysis critical control point programs (HACCP) program that is audited by the NZ Food Safety Authority.

Also, some notable companies do not appear on the USP list like Douglas Laboratories, Quixtar, Source Naturals, Shaklee, Mountain Naturals, Optimum Nutrition and others. These companies are all cGMP compliant with their manufacturing facilities and product creation and opt for other certification than USP.

That is why it’s best to be very thorough when determining whether or not a company produces real quality products. The truth is supplement fraud is rampant. Many vitamin makers simply don’t want to adhere to the strict standards. Some have even been discovered to use sand and other non-nutritive elements with their excipients and filler ingredients.

Generally speaking, look for pharmaceutical grade quality products that are made in GMP compliant facilities whether USP, NSF or NNFA certified; look at the quality of the guarantee; look at the manufacturing procedures. Even after all of this, look at the company and/or product testimonials.

If a product is good, it will have efficacy. In other words, it will work and produce quality results and that will result in happy customers who want to share their experiences. That means testimonials. Any company can get testimonials, but a good product will have “legs.”

It will garner a lot of commentary. That is why this was one of the judging criteria in defining what was the best multivitamin for women product, and multivitamin products in general, on the market today.

The opinion of this study is that  Douglas Laboratories has the best multivitamin product. However, products from Umzu.com, ThePeoplesChemist.com, and Now Foods are high quality.

I hope this ranking of the best multivitamin for women has been helpful.

Send to Kindle