Well no, the way I read is quite literal without anything misogynistic - if a person is saying that they personally take X to affect their body, then the appear

Well no, the way I read is quite literal without anything misogynistic - if a person is saying that they personally take X to affect their body, then the appearance of their body is some (weak but still) evidence about what effect X has, and the decision of whether you want to imitate their actions is influenced by whether you want to look like they do, whether the results they're getting seem worth imitating. The author was apparently considering that personal experience as a user of that product (and the visible outcome) was more relevant than whatever some specialist would have read about it. Like, for an example of the opposite gender, if someone you trust says they did a particular treatment to fix male pattern baldness, then it seems reasonable to put some weight in their personal experience and how their hair looks after the treatment, especially if you don't trust the official descriptions/PR/advertising claims, then even small amounts of anecdotal but real evidence might seem more valuable.