Women's Health Posts on Instagram Make Claims but Rarely Cite Evidence

Researchers at the University of Sydney coded 472 Instagram posts carrying the hashtag #womenshealth and found that 324 made an explicit health claim while 34 referred to scientific evidence.

Brooke Nickel and Tessa Copp, with colleagues in Australia and Denmark, published the content analysis in Health Promotion International on Sept. 23, 2026. They set out to map which women's health topics the hashtag carries. Each post was also coded for whether it made a health claim, whether the account holder had a clear financial interest and whether it cited any scientific evidence.

The authors report that individual influencers created 63% of the posts and that 39% directly sold an intervention, meaning a product, treatment or service. That influencer group included alternative and other health providers as well as medical doctors. The counts describe what was published under one hashtag in a single sampling window, and nothing in the study measures what the people who saw the posts read, believed or bought.

Hormonal and reproductive health was the most common subject, including posts specifically about menopause and perimenopause. Most posts offered general information about a disease, condition or symptom, and the next largest group promoted drugs, supplements or devices.

Nickel and colleagues conclude that the content they coded blurs the line between women's health education and advertising, and they call for stronger regulatory oversight and more involvement from qualified health professionals online. The work was funded by Investigator Grants from Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council.