Posts about pregnancy, menopause and infertility are being “silenced” by Meta, with adverts for items such as pregnancy pillows being blocked from the site without good reason, it has been claimed.
BellaMoon and Hertility are among the companies which have claimed Meta, TikTok and Google are blocking posts and adverts about women’s health and lifestyle products, while allowing similar posts about men’s health issues to thrive.
BellaMoon, a small brand from Ireland, was first blocked by Meta in January after the site reclassified its flagship product, a pregnancy pillow, as a medical device. The company ended up taking out the word “pregnancy” from all its adverts, with CEO Irene Breen telling The Independent: “They made us feel like pregnancy was a bad word.”
Meta introduced new health categories in January 2025 and rolled out additional restrictions to prevent advertisers from sharing information that is not allowed under Meta’s terms. This information includes sensitive health data.
But femtech companies – businesses involved in technology products addressing women’s health and wellbeing issues – claim the new rules disproportionately “censor” women’s health content.
They have repeatedly accused the platforms of “systemic bias and discrimination” and say the issue is having a “catastrophic” impact on their revenue, with the founder of one company having to undergo counselling to help cope with the immense stress.
Meta has given “vague and inconsistent” reasons for repeatedly blocking, removing and restricting content about women’s health, despite ads about men’s health – such as erectile dysfunction and sperm testing – continuing to appear on the same platforms, they claim.
A Meta spokesperson said its policies have “always prohibited advertisers from sharing sensitive information” and that these measures “did not block these organisations from running ads”.
‘We wasted more than £100k on extra ads’
BellaMoon said its adverts were first blocked after the business was reclassified as a medical “condition” advertiser. This “misclassification” treated the product as if it were a regulated medical device, which the company categorically refuted.
“The rug was pulled from under our feet,” CEO Irene Breen told The Independent. “They struck the word pregnancy from the ads. In doing so, they struck through our entire business. That was a massive kick in the stomach.”
BellaMoon was told to make changes to its website and then reapply to Meta within 30 days for a review.
The company took “drastic measures” to implement change in accordance with what it thought Meta wanted to see, taking the words “pregnancy” and “nursing” off the product names and replacing them with “3-in-1 pillow”. In a desperate bid to regain Meta’s ad approval, it also “scrubbed” all of its URLs to remove the word “pregnancy”, despite knowing this would seriously affect the advertising’s visibility online.
But the company kept getting rejected without justification, dealing with a loop of autoresponders and seeing all of its questions for Meta remain “unanswered”.
In the 10 months since its account was suspended, the company had invested over £100,000 in ineffective ad spend that did not reach relevant audiences. Its traffic from Meta ads dropped from 70 per cent to 20 per cent, and it took a “colossal” hit to its revenue.
“It felt catastrophic,” Ms Breen said. “They made us feel like pregnancy was a bad word. We have been silenced and made to feel like we’re doing something wrong.”
The company is now in “survival mode” as it tries desperately to build a world in which it can operate without Meta to survive. Ms Breen said she had to have counselling to deal with the “trauma” of the ordeal, while members of staff have taken leave due to acute stress.
‘We are being punished by the algorithm’
Hertility, a MHRA-regulated brand that sells at-home hormone and fertility tests, was reclassified by Meta as a “health and wellness condition” advertiser in February this year, with no explanation or appeal process.
This reclassification blocked the ads that previously reached up to 600,000 women a month. Ads for men’s hormone and sexual health services, including testosterone tests, continue to run on the online platforms.
The brand experienced a 40 per cent traffic drop and lost access to hundreds of thousands of users per month.
“We are being punished by the algorithm,” said Deirdre O’Neill, co-founder of Hertility. “There is a pattern of bias here. We are being erased.”
Ms O’Neill told The Independent that the “biggest frustration” is felt when you see what is allowed to be advertised on Meta for men’s health. “Sperm testing is fine, but not egg tests – it’s overtly unfair.”
In another instance, Meta classes erectile dysfunction as a health condition, yet allows adverts for treatments. Meanwhile, it has repeatedly blocked adverts and posts about a product which helps boost women’s libido, citing its policy which bans promotion of “sexual pleasure or enhancement”.
One advert that was restricted under this policy stated: “Finally, a natural libido supplement … Perfect for menopause, gynae-designed, natural supplement.”
The advert for a male libido treatment was allowed, which stated: “Are you tired of performance anxiety ruining your erections? We’ve helped over 500,000 men overcome erection issues … ‘I found that I was more confident about sex. Almost like I was 18 again.’”
Clio Wood, co-founder of CensHERship, a campaign to tackle the social media censorship of women’s health and sexual wellbeing content, said: “To Meta, this feels like a small individualised problem. But our data shows this is a systemic issue, this is one of many problems.”
A recent survey by CensHERship found 95 per cent of women’s health creators experienced censorship in the past year, and over half said they now self-censor their language to avoid being taken down from social media platforms.
Anna O’Sullivan, co-founder of CensHERship, said it believes a lawsuit involving Flo Health, which runs the period-tracking app Flo, has made online platforms “really sensitive to sharing women’s health data”.
In September, Google and Flo Health were ordered to pay $56m (£43m) to settle a class action claiming they violated the privacy of millions of Flo app users by collecting information about their menstrual health cycles and using it for targeted advertising.
Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms did not settle and was found liable by a jury on 4 August after a two-week trial.
But rather than targeting bad practice in a precise way, Ms O’Sullivan claims they have “suppressed legitimate ads for legitimate products which women need”.
She added: “How can we own these conversations about our bodies when we are being penalised?”
In March 2025, CensHERship and blended-finance investment firm The Case for Her filed a formal complaint with Ofcom and the EU’s Digital Services Act, urging regulators to investigate.
After being approached for comment, TikTok contacted Hertility to provide clarification on the policy, and the ads team reinstated four of Hertility’s videos following a review.
A Meta spokesperson said: “Meta’s terms and policies have always prohibited advertisers from sharing sensitive information, including health data, and we have measures in place designed to help prevent advertisers from sharing such information.
“These measures did not block these organisations from running ads; they limited the ability to share potentially sensitive information with Meta. Advertisers can request a review if they believe their data source category is not appropriate, and we are working directly with these organisations to provide further guidance.”
A Google spokesperson said: “We have long allowed ads for fertility treatments and services in most countries. To ensure advertisers don’t target people based on sensitive health information, including women’s health advertising, we do implement certain protections.”
