Menopause. Endometriosis. Fertility. Vaginal health. Sexual health. Periods.
These aren’t inappropriate words. They’re healthcare.
And yet, for organizations working in women’s health, talking openly about what they do online isn’t always as simple as it should be.
Content gets restricted. Ads get rejected. Reach suddenly drops. Legitimate health education gets caught by systems designed to flag “sensitive” or sexual content.
There’s something pretty backwards about that.
We’re finally having more open conversations about women’s health, while some of the platforms we’re using to have those conversations are making it harder to do.
And it’s not just a feeling
In 2025, the Center for Intimacy Justice published research based on the experiences of 159 nonprofits, businesses and content creators serving people in more than 180 countries. They documented suppression of sexual and reproductive health content across Meta, TikTok, Google and Amazon.
And we’re not talking about fringe topics. Menopause, menstrual health, endometriosis, abortion, UTIs and sexual health were all part of the conversation.
Some of the restrictions are built right into platform policies. Google, for example, considers health a sensitive interest category for personalized advertising, including areas like sexual health, pregnancy, infertility and genital health.
There are obviously good reasons to protect people’s private health information. But there’s a big difference between protecting someone’s privacy and making it harder for them to find credible information in the first place.
Women’s health brands are learning to speak in code
We’ve all seen it.
Words altered to avoid filters. Asterisks dropped into normal health terminology. Euphemisms used instead of actual anatomy.
Sometimes that’s what it takes to get content through.
But it’s also a little absurd.
For years, one of the biggest challenges in women’s health has been getting people comfortable talking about their bodies. We’ve worked hard to remove the shame and stigma around words like vagina, menopause, menstruation and infertility.
We shouldn’t have to start disguising them again to keep an algorithm happy.
This is bigger than social media
Social is incredibly important for women’s health. It’s where people find community, share experiences and sometimes discover for the first time that what they’re experiencing actually has a name.
But you don’t own Instagram. Or TikTok. Or LinkedIn.
You don’t control their algorithms, their policies or what they decide is “sensitive” next month.
Which makes the role of your own website and content even more important.
It’s where you can explain what you do properly. It’s where someone searching privately for an answer can find credible information without having to follow you or engage publicly. And it’s where you can build a body of useful content around the questions your audience is already asking.
That matters for Google.
And increasingly, it matters for AI too.
People aren’t searching the way they used to
We’re already seeing a shift from short Google searches to full questions asked through ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI tools.
People aren’t necessarily searching “endometriosis symptoms.”
They’re asking:
Why does it hurt so much when I get my period?
Could this be endometriosis?
Why are my periods changing in my 40s?
Where can I find menopause support in Canada?
That’s an important shift for women’s health organizations.
Because the opportunity isn’t just to rank for a keyword anymore. It’s to become a credible source that search engines and AI tools can understand and surface when someone asks a question related to your area of expertise.
And that doesn’t come from stuffing a website with keywords.
It comes from being clear about what you do, answering real questions, creating genuinely useful content and building authority around the issues you know best.
Don’t let the algorithm decide how you talk about women’s health
The answer isn’t to abandon social media. Far from it.
It’s to stop relying on any one platform to decide whether people can find you.
Use social to start conversations and build community. Use your website to go deeper. Create content around the questions people are actually asking. Make sure your expertise is clear and easy to understand, whether the person finding you is on Google, Instagram or asking ChatGPT for help.
And keep using the real words.
One of the things I love most about working in women’s health is seeing organizations, businesses, advocates and communities come together to push these conversations forward. That’s where BOLD LIP comes in too. We’re here to help make change, and we’re proud to work alongside the people making it happen.
Because women’s health has spent enough time being whispered about.
We don’t need the algorithm asking us to whisper again.