"Trying to make money off your vagina": Gyno on lies in women's wellness
Have you been inundated with wellness ads and so-called scientific solutions on social media? From vagina gummies to natural hormone “treatments” — it’s an endless influence-filled fight to spread misinformation and make money off women’s bodies.
But, there’s a major pushback underway from experts who are speaking out and sharing facts when it comes to these marketing ploys — and among those leading the pack is Dr. Jen Gunter.
Dr. Gunter has been called the internet’s OB/GYN and Twitter’s resident gynecologist for her advocacy for women’s health and for addressing misinformation and marketing toward women.
The Canadian American author of The Menopause ManifestoĀ and The Vagina BibleĀ has an extensive history of research in female health and uses her knowledge to call BS on these “miracle” products.
One of her most recent fights is against the brand Lemme Live and its new vaginal gummies product — with reality star Kourtney Kardashian at the helm.
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“Well, I don’t think [Kourtney] Kardashian has any [integrity]… [she’s] taking advantage of the situation,” she said.
“She’s trying to rebrand Goop and she’s offering nothing,” the doctor added, referencing actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness website which has come under fire from experts on several occasions for its misleading information.
“I would say she is as bad as everything in society that has culminated to that point. [Kourtney Kardashian] is a misogynist. She’s an awful person and a misogynist. Anybody who sells a useless product for the vagina is,” Gunter continued.
She says the foothold these marketing products have is that many women feel that they need something like this because their doctor can’t help them with a recurrent condition.
“While there has been a lot of research on the vaginal microbiome, there could always be more.”
Gunter says there are gaps in research on women’s health and it all comes down to money and the complexity of the female body.
“This takes like years of work and funding and certainly, answers to complex solutions are not found on celebrities peddling gummies,” she said.
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Gunter says if you are being sold something, be critical of it.
“You know, so many of these devices for the pelvic floor are incredibly expensive. They’re untested. Meaning if you had one or two visits with pelvic floor physical therapists, or real experts, you might be able to solve the problem and actually get far more information,” she said.
“It takes one piece of misinformation to send you down the wrong pathway, one piece, that’s it. So you need to be very, very mindful of how you consume social media,” she said, encouraging a fact-check-based approach for every single piece of content you watch.
“If they’ve got the first fact wrong, block them, you don’t need that person contaminating your feed. Block the Kardashians, they’re not that interesting… You don’t need to know which Kardashian is trying to make money off of your vagina. You just don’t.”
Gunter is the keynote speaker at the sold-out panel Sex, Lies + Hormones hosted by ScienceUpFirst at Vancouver’s Science World.
ScienceUpFirst is an initiative that aims to provide Canadians with the best available science in creative ways to debunk health and the “glut” of misinformation masquerading as science. It provides a space for women to check the facts, without getting stuck in more misinformation.
According to ScienceUpFirst, the wellness industry is a $1.5 trillion dollar giant mainly marketed to women, and “a lot of it is bunk pseudoscience.”
But, like Gunter, it’s easy to be tricked because many women have had bad experiences in the past.
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“We know that the medical concerns of female patients are not always taken seriously, and this gender bias also extends into medical research,” ScienceUpFirst said in a release ahead of the event.
But, that doesn’t mean you should be easily bought, and even more importantly, tricked into something that might turn out to be harmful.
“Be careful of misleading advertising using buzzwords such as ‘natural’ and ‘homemade remedies.’ Any form of MHT should always be discussed with your healthcare provider to ensure the benefits outweigh the risks,” the release continued.
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“Health isn’t trendy,” said Gunter.
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