PMS Supplements, such as Flo and Serenol, have been growing in popularity over the last few years and there’s definitely something to the idea. There are certain deficiencies (that are very common) that can make symptoms of PMS worse and a fair amount of research into certain herbal extracts which have shown some positive results. The question of course is who makes the best PMS supplement, well sadly it is neither Flo nor Serenol, but that’s something we’ll come onto later. The main focus of this piece is of course a shootout between the two.
Editors Note: If you want the TL;DR, Flo PMS is slightly better than Serenol, but it is still very under dosed, meaning it doesn’t have enough of it’s ingredients to be in line with the clinical trials, and thus for a lot of the benefits. Generally, we recommend Kittie, which does actually have the right doses of said ingredients, but it is produced by a smaller manufacturer and doesn’t have quite the same marketing budget, so you’re less likely to have come across it, despite it being a far superior product than either of these two.
Flo vs Serenol: The Highlights
- Flo is formulated with commonly used PMS supplement ingredients like chasteberry, dong quai, lemon balm, and vitamin B6, which do have a lot of studies supporting them. Serenol however, uses Pollen and Royal Jelly, both of which have very limited evidence to support that they do anything at all.
- Serenol is almost twice the price of Flo PMS supplements at $62
- Serenol’s evidence largely comes from a survey of it’s repeat customers
- Serenol makes a lot of sketchy marketing claims like “recommended by 6,200 doctors in the US”.
- Flo has more positive reviews
Flo Overview
When it comes to Flo, we do have to mention that there’s a couple of different products, they all have under dosed ingredients, but the gummies are by far the worst. This is just due to the nature of the format, we wrote a piece about the issues of gummy supplements here, but the short version is that they can only contain about 15% of what a capsule does. And if you look at our review of our number one rated PMS supplement, you can see that they need 3 whole capsules to get the right doses in. That said, there is enough chasteberry and b6 in all of Flo’s products, even if everything else is typically under the dosage requirements for it to be effective.
And both Chasteberry and B6 have a number of studies to back up their use for PMS symptoms.
Serenol Overview
So, Serenol, as you may have guessed we’re not huge fans, but there’s two reasons for this. The first is the price point for what their product is, you can pick up the same thing without the trademark for about $20, and yes that’s third party tested to show that the product is legit. The second thing is the evidence they use.
They use their own clinical trials and surveys as proof. And yes, whilst the results showed that within three months of using Serenol, 77% of women experienced relief from PMS symptoms, with 60% reporting a reduction in mood swings and irritability, these trials were run by the company themselves. And it’s not exactly like they’re going to be above using common trial tricks to fudge numbers when investigating their own product. The most common of these is simply encouraging participants not reporting positive results to drop out.
This is not a placebo controlled trial, so it’s really not much use. And as for the survey, it’s pretty easy to filer their customers buy those who repeatedly buy and those who do not.
Serenol claim’s“Bonafide” pollen targets non-hormonal pathways in the body, providing relief from symptoms like hot flashes and poor-quality sleep.
Side Effects: Flo Vitamins vs Serenol
Both Serenol and Flo are natural supplements with minimal risk of side effects.
However, Serenol users should be cautious of potential allergic reactions to Bonafide pollen, which have been reported as skin rashes, stomach pain, or breathing difficulties.
Customer Reviews Serenol Vs Flo Vitamins
Flo is a bigger company so as you’d expect it has more reviews. In general, the reviews seem to trend on the positive side, although a lot of them do seem to be bought. There’s relatively few reports of side effects as we mentioned before.
Serenol, similarly does OK, in terms of it’s Amazon reviews, although there’s a far higher portion that seem to give negative or relatively neutral responses. For example one user said:
“I’ve been using it for over 9 months. And sometimes it works and sometimes it just doesn’t.”
There were also a couple of complaints about appetite increase with suggestions to use Flo gummies instead. Of course, this doesn’t line up with our advice, but then again we’re recommending a much lesser known product.
Sketchy Marketing
Serenol claims to be recommended by over 6,200 doctors in the United States, highlighting its safety and efficacy. This is incredibly unlikely, nor do their share any reference whatsoever as to where they got this number.
The Serenol team consists of more than 50 professionals with expertise in medical drug discovery, clinical research, and patient advocacy.
Flo on the other hand doesn’t explicitly mention expert opinions does provide comprehensive information on studies supporting the effectiveness of its ingredients.
Conclusion Flo Gummies Vs Serenol
Either way you could do better. But, if you’re going to go with one, then we’d recommend Flo, there’s at least some decent evidence for some of the ingredients. However, if you want to get the maximum chance of relief, then we recommend Kittie, (read review here).