Women's health: Knowledge is power, but half-truths are lies

By Tessa Copp & Brooke Nickel

Using the language of feminist empowerment to sell non-evidence based fertility tests to women undermines efforts to improve women's health, argue Dr Tessa Copp and Dr Brooke Nickel...

An increasing number of companies are hijacking feminist discourse to promote so-called 'fertility tests' not backed by evidence. The use of feminist 'empowerment' language in their marketing attempts to convey these companies as socially progressive and champions of female health.

In the 60s and 70s second-wave feminism started to question the control doctors held over women's bodies, as women campaigned for greater reproductive rights, less medicalisation of pregnancy and greater knowledge of their own bodies. The seminal book, Our Bodies, Ourselves encouraged women to empower themselves through better knowledge of their bodies to allow them to play an active role in meeting their own health needs.

This rhetoric has been employed and evolved over the decades, and can now be seen in the promotion of fertility tests to women of reproductive age. However, what if the tests they're selling have no evidence of benefit, and strong potential to harm?