Feminist narratives are being misused to market useless health products to women, according to new research highlighting a large scope of gender inequity in healthcare.
Researchers from the University of Sydney have found that some promotions encouraging women to take charge of their health could lead to overdiagnosis and treatment.
“Women’s health is vital and cannot be allowed to be hijacked by vested interests,” write the study’s authors, led by Dr Tessa Copp from the University of Sydney’s school of public health.
“The public, patients, clinicians, policy makers, and journalists all need to be more aware of how feminist language can be co-opted to promote or create new care needs that are not based on solid scientific evidence.”
Published in the British Medical Journal on Thursday, the paper explains how these marketing messages echo those used in the 1980s to promote harmful products like tobacco and alcohol to women.
The research analyses this phenomenon in two current examples: the anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) test and the breast density notification.
Anti-Mullerian Hormone test
Often used in fertility treatment, the AMH test is associated with counting the number of eggs in a woman’s ovaries but can’t reliably predict a woman’s chances of conceiving.
Despite this, many fertility clinics and online companies market the AMH test through feminist rhetoric promising ‘empowerment’ through knowledge and saying ‘you deserve to know your reproductive potential”.
“The use of feminist marketing makes these companies appear socially progressive and champions of female health. But they are selling a test that has no proven benefit outside of IVF and cannot inform women about their current or future fertility,” write Copp and fellow researcher Brooke Nickel in The Conversation.
The recent study found around 30 per cent of women in Australia may be using AMH test thinking that it will predict fertility outcomes.
Breast density notification
Breast density notification is another test being marketed through feminist language without solid scientific backing to the rhetoric used.
The additional breast cancer screening is meant to notify women with dense tissue breasts if they have cancer. Higher breast density can make cancer harder to see on a mammogram.
However, researchers say that simplistic marketing messages like “women need to know the truth” and “women can handle the truth” aren’t taking into account the lack of data on whether the benefits of notifying and providing additional screenings (ultrasound or MRI) actually outweighs the harms. The extra tests also have out-of-pocket costs and high rates of false-positive results.
It’s not women’s ‘individual responsibility’ to ignore these harmful health messages
Tackling gender inequalities in the healthcare system isn’t going to be solved by placing individual responsibility upon women to simply ignore these exploitative marketing messages, researchers say.
The paper recommends that marketing of medical interventions should be strongly regulated, and that “health professionals and governments have a responsibility to educate and counter commercially driven messages”.
“Individual responsibility alone will never tackle inequalities in healthcare,” researchers say, adding that it can’t “be solely the responsibility of women targeted by these narratives to understand all potential benefits and harms and make an informed decision”.
The paper notes that the simplified nature of these health messages make it imperative that health professionals and governments “ensure that easily understood, balanced information based on high quality scientific evidence” is available to all women.