Companies marketing useless health products to women using feminist wellbeing messages

Researchers find promotions encouraging women to take charge of their health could lead to overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment

By Melissa Davey

Corporations are co-opting feminist messages around women’s wellbeing to promote useless health tests and treatments, an analysis by Australian researchers has found.

Published in the British Medical Journal on Thursday, the paper describes how these marketing messages echo those historically used to promote harmful products like tobacco and alcohol to women.

The researchers write that as a result, women are being potentially exposed to harms such as overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment through messages encouraging 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”, the analysis said.