Companies are co-opting feminist messages around women’s wellbeing to promote pointless health tests and treatments, an analysis by Australian researchers has found.
Published Thursday in the British Medical Journalthe article describes how these marketing messages mirror those used in the past to promote harmful products such as tobacco and alcohol to women.
The researchers write that as a result, women are potentially exposed to harms such as overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment through messages that encourage them to take charge of their health.
The analysis uses the example of some menstrual tracking apps that claim to diagnose reproductive conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome, “promising empowerment through knowledge and control over your body, despite limited evidence of accuracy and benefit,” according to the analysis.
“The problem does not necessarily lie in the use of health technologies, tests and treatments, as many women benefit greatly from them and have a better quality of life,” wrote the authors, led by Dr. Tessa Copp of the School of Public from the University of Sydney. health.
“The problem lies in the way commercial marketing and advocacy efforts push such interventions to a much larger group of women than is likely to benefit, without being explicit about their limitations.”
They also highlight the marketing of the AMH test, which measures levels of anti-müllerian hormone in the blood. The hormone is linked to the number of eggs in a woman’s ovaries, but the test cannot reliably predict a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant.
Despite this, many fertility clinics and online companies market and sell the test as a fertility tool, using phrases such as “information is power” and “take charge of your fertility.”
A senior author of the article, Dr. Brooke Nickel, said the responsibility should not be placed on individual women to navigate these health messages and understand all the potential benefits and harms of products.
“The responsibility should largely fall on companies marketing these health interventions to be clearer about their limitations,” she said.
“Health professionals and governments also have a responsibility to educate and counter commercially driven messages, and to more strongly regulate the marketing of unproven health interventions.”
The need to highlight quality information among disinformation has led to initiatives such as Choose Australia wiselywhich works with top health authorities to identify unnecessary tests, treatments and procedures.
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In October, a report co-authored by the Australasian Menopause Society, Monash University’s Women’s Health Research Program and Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, revealed the powerful commercial incentives to ‘catastrophize’ menopause in women’s minds, driving them to encouraged to often make useless purchases. products to treat it.
Technology companies promising the diagnosis of reproductive disorders and fertility clinics promoting egg freezing without providing adequate information about likely outcomes and risks were other areas where problematic advertising targeted at women was widespread, Nickel said.
She and Copp are now conducting research into how various health tests, including the AMH test, are promoted by companies and influencers on social media.
“Who doesn’t want to feel empowered and feel like they’re taking control of their health?” Dr. Karin Hammarberg, from Monash University’s global and women’s health unit, said.
“But if that is coupled with products that are actually defective, do not help and will cost you money, then it really is false advertising.”
But Hammarberg said the rules and regulations surrounding online advertising of therapeutic goods, including vitamins and minerals, are difficult for regulators to enforce.
“Moreover, these industries are very powerful, enormously lucrative and often shareholder-owned. So the more you can sell this stuff, the more money you make. Consumer protections need to be stronger, especially when it comes to direct-to-consumer websites and holding the companies behind them to account.”