The claim: The product cures “all womanly ailments,” including menstrual pain.
The truth: As TIME wrote in 1936 about a squabble over the Pinkham family fortune among Lydia’s descendants, “the only restorative ingredient … was alcohol (19%, later reduced to 15%).” The advent of the Food and Drug Administration led to a change of formula. Several products with similar names — but no alcohol and which are not directly linked with Lydia Pinkham — are still made by pharmaceutical companies today and marketed as herbal remedies.