You have probably scrolled past a post about periods, menopause or pregnancy without thinking twice. Most of us assume we are seeing what the platform decides to show us. For a growing number of women's health creators, that is the problem.
Companies and charities working in women's health say Instagram, Facebook and TikTok are quietly limiting posts that mention everyday words like "pregnancy," "vulva" and "endometriosis."
Some posts are removed outright. Others are hidden behind a sensitivity filter or shown to far fewer followers than usual, a practice known as shadowbanning.
The scale of the problem is set out in a 2026 survey from campaign group CensHERship, which polled nearly 200 creators, clinicians, charities and brands. Of those, 96 percent said they had experienced some form of restriction.
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Self-censorship has climbed sharply too. The share of creators now avoiding certain words or topics has risen to 65 percent, up from 53 percent a year earlier. Some write "seggs" instead of "sex," others use asterisks or drop whole topics.
The small businesses losing reach over a single word
For Irene Breen, founder of pregnancy pillow brand Bella Moon, the problem started in January 2025 when her Instagram ads disappeared. The word "pregnancy" had been flagged on her product pages and in her URLs.
"We had to remove all our URLs which had pregnancy in them and rename them all," Breen told the BBC.
It took 10 months of back and forth with Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, before the restrictions were lifted. By then, she said, the financial damage was significant.
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What creators say the platforms are hiding
Gynecological cancer charity The Eve Appeal says one of its anatomical images about vulval cancer was tucked behind a sensitivity filter. Chief executive Athena Lamnisos has said the hashtag #vaginalcancer does not surface on Instagram at all.
A fertility testing company, Hertility, says a video of a woman describing her endometriosis pain was taken down and labeled as "political content." Co-founder Deirdre O'Neill said the clip did not mention the company's services and simply described the woman's symptoms.
The issue has reached Westminster. A House of Commons Library briefing was prepared for a May 2026 debate. It noted that women's health leaders have warned MPs that posts about menstruation, fertility and menopause are being systematically restricted.
What Meta and TikTok have told reporters
Meta declined to comment on individual cases. The company said businesses can run ads promoting wellness, sexual health and reproductive products.
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But it keeps some restrictions in place, Meta said, to avoid giving users across different countries and cultures a negative experience.
TikTok acknowledged that some content is limited, while pointing out that millions of users continue to share health posts under tags such as #Period and #Endometriosis.
CensHERship co-founder Clio Wood has called the resulting self-censorship "really damaging," because it reinforces older taboos about women's bodies rather than breaking them down.
The campaign group is now pushing platforms to publish how their moderation systems actually work. It is also extending its research to compare how platforms treat men's and women's health companies across the European Union.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.