I will be the first to admit that I run to Google any time I notice that something in my body is out of alignment. A sensitive scalp? Google. A sudden twitch in my right eye? Google. Changes to my period? You know it, Google.
It turns out that I’m not alone in turning to a search engine as my first port of call for health issues. According to a new study, 56% of British women rely on search engines such as Google for information on their menstrual health, and one in 10 women turn to social media – with TikTok alone having 7.6 billion video views under the #womenshealth hashtag.
Yet, the issue with this, says the research from period tracking app Flo Health, is that often search results and advice on social media can include menstrual misinformation or be more generalised information when what you really need is personalised advice.
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“The growth of online platforms and social media go hand in hand with the rise in menstrual misinformation,” Dr Claudia Pastides, director of medical accuracy at Flo, says. “The ubiquity and the vastness of the internet allow for misinformation to spread at record speed.
“At the same time, we rarely question the validity and credibility of sources we turn to. In fact, a 2022 Ofcom report showed that 30% of adults did not know or did not consider the potential truthfulness of online information at all, and 6% believed that all the information they find online is truthful. A further 34% of 16- to 24-year-olds think that if websites have been listed by a search engine, they will contain accurate and unbiased information.”
Young women are particularly susceptible to searching for menstrual advice, with the 18 to 34 age group being the most likely to look up medical queries online, and 18% of those aged 18 to 24 turning to social media for advice around menstrual health.
“Those findings are not surprising at all,” Dr Pastides adds. “Social media platforms like TikTok offer information in a very accessible, bite-size and easily digestible format, so it’s understandable why people would want to use these platforms as information sources. However, there are no barriers in place to stop misinformation or false claims from spreading, and that’s the issue we want to highlight.”
Some misinformation that Dr Pastides has seen spread includes claims that the colour of your period blood can reveal deficiencies, and that women are able to ‘optimise’ their periods so that they don’t last more than three days. Hint: these are both not true.
If you insist on using social media for your medical advice, Dr Pastides says there are a few things you should keep in mind to make sure the information is medically accurate. These include:
- Check the qualifications of the doctor you’re following: “Is the doctor you’re following for advice about women’s health an obstetrician, gynaecologist, or a GP? Check the qualifications listed on their social profile or website. Look out for things like a university degree, medical or surgical training qualifications, society membership, and so on.”
- Question their claims: “A good and sensible medical expert is aware of the limitations of sharing health information online, so they should explain that not all the information they give is suitable for everyone to follow.”
- Double check cited facts: “Check out that research to see if it is credible. For instance, is it from the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NHS, etc.? Don’t hesitate to question where someone got a statistic if it isn’t clear.”
- Don’t buy into ‘miracle cures’: “In medicine, there are rarely quick-fix solutions and even fewer that would apply to everyone. If an online medical influencer is promoting something that seems hard to believe (e.g., juice cleanses, dietary restrictions, etc.), it often isn’t credible.”
Further research from Flo found that nearly three quarters of women (72%) never double check health information they get on social media, while 54% were not aware of premenstrual syndrome before their first period, and 7% wrongly believe that tampons can stretch your vagina.
Perhaps, while we may think that we are more in tune with our bodies – hence all the Google searches – the underlying issue could be that we’re actually less in touch with our bodies than ever, believing everything we see online or on social media and thinking its applicable to us.
To get back in tune with our bodies, Dr Pastides says it’s important to be able to read your body’s signals. “Understand what they mean, and knowing more about your cycle will ultimately make you more in tune with your body and will also enable you to advocate for your own health,” she adds.
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“Health literacy is incredibly important. In fact, low health literacy is a direct contributor to the spread of misinformation and leads to poor health outcomes and unhealthy behaviours, especially in the areas of menstruation and sexual and pregnancy health.”
So where should women turn to for menstrual advice, especially when it feels as if you’re as likely to book a GP appointment at the moment as you are to win the lottery? “When it comes to medically accurate information sources, health organisations like the NHS, educational or research institutions and charities are usually a good place to turn,” Dr Pastides advises. “You can also use online libraries and databases, peer-reviewed journals, and medical associations but those can be harder to digest for non-medical professionals.”
