NSF GMP
The Women to Women approach
to purity, quality and efficacy
With all the conflicting headlines about vitamins and supplements these days, and thousands of products on the market to choose from, deciding which — if any — dietary supplements to take is no easy task. We can’t always eat a perfect diet, and each of us has unique health needs, so we may wonder if regular drug-store multivitamins are good enough. At the same time, many of us are concerned about whether more costly brands, such as those offered at doctors’ offices or on-line, are worth the extra money.
At Women to Women we share your concerns. As care providers in the field of women’s health, we’re compelled to offer real solutions to the healthcare challenges women face every day. In over 21 years of clinical experience, we’ve learned a great deal about supplement purity and quality. We found, in fact, that the best way to maintain our high standards would be for us to develop our own, pharmaceutical-grade line of Clinical Formulations. So that is what we did. And one way we can ensure delivery of quality is by working exclusively with labs that are externally validated by the NSF to meet or exceed the FDA’s GMP guidelines.
What is NSF GMP, and why is it so important?
The acronym NSF GMP stands for “National Sanitary Foundation/Good Manufacturing Practices.” In practical terms, GMP’s are guidelines that lay out the fundamental do’s and don’ts for assuring the integrity of a finished product. But these are not simple standards. Nor are they inexpensive to implement, and certification is not easily come by.
NSF GMP Certified labs must undergo regular inspection by state and federal health authorities as well as audits by independent clients. In the United States to date, only an estimated 26 out of the approximately 300 dietary supplement laboratories have received NSF GMP Certification. (Click here to see a list of NSF GMP Certified Labs.)
Around the world for over 60 years, the NSF itself has worked to ensure public health, safety and environmental quality. As an independent, not-for-profit, non-governmental organization, NSF’s stakeholders include industry, the regulatory community, and the public at large — in other words, all of us. NSF’s leadership in protecting human health is founded on expertise, cooperative thinking, rigorous objectivity, and its independent, non-profit status.
Why we chose NSF GMP manufacturing partners
At Women to Women, we view the NSF’s GMP program as an essential ally in quality assurance. This makes sense for three simple reasons:
- We want to be true to what we say.
- If you’re going to pay for it, you need to know that you’re getting your money’s worth.
- If a supplement doesn’t contain the right ingredients, you cannot be assured that what you’re using it for is going to work.
What originally led us to choose NSF GMP Certified labs as our manufacturing partners was our own need to know at each step of the delivery process, from raw materials sourcing through delivery at your doorstep. For us, being sure means knowing that every one of our bottles contains what we want it to — nothing more and nothing less. At Women to Women, we need to know we’re doing well by our patients and Personal Program members — because for us, that’s what medicine is all about.
We externally validate our raw materials prior to sourcing
Many supplement companies permit their manufacturing labs to select the raw materials. Or, if their lab tests the raw materials and the assay comes back a little off, they may go ahead and use it anyway, because it’s very expensive to send it back. But those are risks we’re not willing to take. Where the integrity of our product means your improved overall health, the only way to begin is with the purest raw materials available.
At Women to Women, we work with our labs to source raw materials, then have them externally tested (independently third-party assayed), validated by Certificates of Analysis, and stored in isolation under specific requirements. Our Certificates of Analysis are reviewed and held in-house to ensure that every raw ingredient meets or exceeds our expectations. If it doesn’t, it has to be sent back. Even if that’s going to cost us money.
Production matters — independent assays and tests for physical properties
After the ingredients arrive at the NSF GMP Certified lab, they are combined in production under standardized automated procedures, subjected once again to post-production assays, then bottled, labeled, and held under specified storage requirements as finished products. Again, these assays are critical to ascertain the exact composition of the product.
Some of the physical properties documented on our Certificates of Analysis include the following:
- Active components — Must be present at levels within a specified range.
- Disintegration — How long a tablet or gelcap takes to dissolve in your stomach.
- Hardness — Makes for ease of swallowing (a lot of women tell us our supplements are easier to swallow than most).
- Friability — No one likes to open their supplements to find broken bits and pieces.
- Absence of key microbial contaminants and toxins — these include unfriendly bacteria, yeast and moulds — ugh!
- Heavy metals — We test every batch of our marine lipid supplements for lead, mercury, and other dangerous heavy metals.
All the above criteria — and more — must be met, or the supplement simply cannot do its job. From step one, where we source the active ingredients; to their careful combination according to precise formulations; to the way in which bottles are labeled, stored and shipped, all our formulations undergo a rigorous set of standard operating procedures that gets documented in minute detail each step of the way. If there’s a problem, we want to hear about it. The bottom line is, when a product such as ours is manufactured in this fashion, in a facility that has been externally certified to meet or exceed governmental standards for Good Manufacturing Practices (“NSF GMP Certified”), you can be confidant of its authenticity, potency, quality and purity. We feel you’re worth it.
So while you will always have the final say in choices concerning your nutritional and dietary supplements, we’re here to help. We do this each day through consultations at our healthcare clinic, through free access to a comprehensive library of articles on our website, and through products that are carefully formulated and produced for our Personal Program.
To learn more about NSF GMP’s, visit the Good Manufacturing Practices section of the NSF website.
For more information on dietary supplements and women’s wellness, see our articles on:
For more information on the ingredients and science behind Women to Women’s Clinical Formulas, see our product pages:
Our Personal Program is a great foundation
The Personal Program promotes healthy hormonal balance during perimenopause and menopause with nutritional supplements, gentle endocrine support and dietary guidance. It is a convenient, at-home version of the guidance we give our patients at our clinic, and is appropriate for women of any age who are experiencing symptoms of hormonal imbalance.
- If you’re ready to get started, join the Personal Program now. The first step is to complete our on-line Hormonal Health Profile. It’s easy, informative and free.
- If you’d like to learn more about the biology behind the Personal Program, go to How It Works.
- If you have questions about whether the Program will work for you, call us toll-free at
1-800-798-7902.
We’re here to listen and help.
We’re always happy to welcome new patients to our medical clinic in Yarmouth, Maine. Click here for information about making an appointment.
Last Modified: 05/20/2008