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Flo's reproductive health survey reveals stark knowledge gaps amongst UK women
While the United Kingdom has free, universal health care and compulsory sexual and reproductive health education, £1 billion in cuts to sexual health services since 2015 and a wider NHS crisis mean women have fewer credible places to gain knowledge. They are increasingly going online in search of knowledge, turning to search engines, online forums, and social media. On TikTok, #womenshealth content alone has so far amassed 7.3 billion views. The sheer volume of information from a myriad of sources has the potential to leave women vulnerable to misinformation, and therefore it has never been more important that women have access to credible and personalised information to take their health into their own hands.
Flo Health's report, titled "MIND THE GAPS: Menstrual & reproductive misinformation in the UK in 2023", shows that over half (56%) of UK women rely on search engines for their information about menstrual health, while nearly one in 10 turn to social media. However, even accurate results from search engines and medically qualified social media influencers can serve up only generalised advice. Younger women aged 18–34 are the most likely to turn to online resources and also the most likely to find aspects of sex and masturbation to be taboo.
Among other key findings, the survey revealed that:
Dr Claudia Pastides , MBBS, Director of Medical Accuracy at Flo Health, explains, "Low health literacy is a direct contributor to the spread of misinformation and leads to poor health outcomes and unhealthy behaviours, especially in the areas of menstrual, sexual, and pregnancy health. Every woman's body is different, and every woman's experience with her menstrual and reproductive health is unique, but this is not taken into consideration enough.
"We at Flo Health are working towards being part of the solution to this problem. We want to empower women to better understand their own unique bodies, destigmatise taboo topics, and ultimately improve their health literacy by personalising their access to medically credible health information."
The findings demonstrate that there is an urgent need for online platforms to focus on fact-checking and ensuring that users can easily identify credible information sources, especially given that fake news reaches more people than the truth and spreads deeper, faster, and more broadly online. The future of women's health is at a turning point, and according to Flo's predictions, these are the developments we can expect in the next 12 months:
Being well informed about your health is empowering, so it's no wonder women want to take charge of it. Nearly nine in 10 (89%) of Flo users say it's helped them feel more informed and educated about their cycle health. Beyond helping individual women to better understand their bodies, Flo is also actively helping to close the medical research gender gap and producing medically credible content to help inform millions of women. "It's so incredibly helpful and empowering. I wish I'd been taught so much of this in school rather than just the generic 'biology of the reproductive system and that women will be grumpy and always have a bag with them for tampons and pads'. This app has changed so much, thank you!" said Kate, a Flo user from the United Kingdom .
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Based on the number of views for #womenshealth on TikTok as of
April 21, 2023
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Based on a 2022 survey of 2.5k Flo users
High-resolution images and logos can be found here.
For more information about Flo: website, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter.
Flo Health's 2023 UK Reproductive Health survey of 2,000 UK women aged 18–66 was commissioned by Flo Health and conducted by market research company OnePoll, in accordance with the Market Research Society's code of conduct. Data was collected between 3rd–8th February 2023. All participants are double-opted in to take part in research and are paid an amount depending on the length and complexity of the survey. This survey was overseen and edited by the OnePoll research team, who are members of the MRS and have corporate membership to ESOMAR.
Flo Health's 2023 US Reproductive Health survey was conducted in January 2023 among 2,010 online adult women ages 18–55 via Cint. Sampling quotas were used to ensure representativeness of the US general population of women aged 18–55. Sampling quotas and population calculations were derived using the US Census Bureau's 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates Subject Tables. Report was issued on February 7, 2023 , by Ground Control Research.
Flo is the most popular women's health app globally. It is the #1 OB-GYN-recommended app for period and cycle tracking based on a survey among US OB-GYNs. Over 280 million people have downloaded Flo, and 50 million people use it on a monthly basis. With over 120+ medical experts, Flo supports women during their entire reproductive lives and provides curated cycle and ovulation tracking, personalised health insights, expert tips, and a fully closed community for women to share their questions and concerns. Flo prioritises safety and keeps a sharp focus on being the most trusted digital source for women's health information. As part of the company's commitment to privacy, Flo Health's Anonymous Mode feature was named a finalist for Fast Company's 2023 World Changing Ideas, Rapid Response Category. The Flo Health app is available in more than 20 languages on iOS and Android. For more information, please visit https://flo.health.
Daria Gerasimova
d_gerasimova@flo.health
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2074320/Flo_Health_Inc.jpg
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