Why have we stopped selling Wild Yam :

At BulkActives we have decided to discontinue selling Wild Yam, because we cannot in good conscience continue selling a product that science has proven to be ineffective.

Estrogens and the skin

Estrogen loss at menopause has a profound influence on skin.

Estrogen treatment in postmenopausal women has been repeatedly shown to increase collagen  content, dermal thickness and elasticity, and data on the effect of estrogen on skin water content is also promising.  [2]

Why Wild Yam Should NOT be Used for Progesterone

Wild yam may have some real benefits as a nutritional supplement, but it's important to dispel a common myth that wild yam is a good source of progesterone. In reality, wild yam should not be used for this purpose.

Wild yam is a plant source for a saponin called diosgenin (the active component in wild yams), which can be converted in a laboratory into progesterone.

However, your body cannot convert diosgenin into progesterone, DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) or any other sex hormone, and wild yam does not naturally contain any progesterone that your body can use.

The progesterone that is made from wild yam is known as pharmaceutical progesterone because it only exists after a chemical conversion process has been performed in a lab.

So, wild yam products that say they contain "natural progesterone" can be misleading because progesterone does not actually exist in wild yams, nor can your body convert any wild yam components into it.

In fact, a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study of the effects of a wild yam cream in 23 healthy women suffering from troublesome symptoms of the menopause showed that  short-term treatment with topical wild yam appears to have little effect on menopausal symptoms. [1]

References (full abstracts here)

2: Brincat MP, Baron YM, Galea R. Estrogens and the skin. Climacteric. 2005 Jun;8(2):110-23. Review.  PubMed PMID: 16096167.

1: Komesaroff PA, Black CV, Cable V, Sudhir K. Effects of wild yam extract on menopausal symptoms, lipids and sex hormones in healthy menopausal women. Climacteric. 2001 Jun;4(2):144-50. PubMed PMID: 11428178.