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The femtech companies taking on Big Tech over digital censorship
Campaigners say more femtech companies are taking a stand against major tech platforms such as Meta, Google, Amazon and LinkedIn, over digital censorship.
In March, six leading startups in the femtech space filed formal complaints with the European Commission over systemic bias and discrimination in content moderation by major online platforms.
Led by advocacy campaign CensHERship and blended-finance investment portfolio The Case For Her, the start-ups are invoking the Digital Services Act (DSA) to expose how platforms disproportionately restrict, shadow ban and remove health-related content aimed at women.
Now CensHERship has told Femtech World that since taking action, a number of other companies have come forward to file complaints related to similar challenges.
“The more we uncover about online censorship, the more we see how it disproportionately impacts FemTech businesses,” say co-founders, Anna O’Sullivan and Clio Wood.
“This issue extends far beyond the six complaints we’ve submitted. We’ve been contacted by a number of other businesses facing the same challenges, many of whom would now also like to file complaints. This is in addition to the 100+ businesses, charities, and creators we’ve engaged with in our research over the past year. It’s clear that the censorship and restrictions being faced are not isolated ‘mistakes’ but part of a broader, systemic issue that needs real attention and reform.”
Evidence collected by CensHERship has found multiple cases of medically accurate, expert-led content related to women’s health—including menopause, libido and reproductive health—being blocked, taken down and/or labeled as ‘political’ or ‘adult content’.
A 2025 report by Center for Intimacy Justice into the suppression of content on sexual and reproductive health for women and people of diverse genders, found that 84 per cent of businesses had ads rejected on Meta (Facebook, Instagram) and 64 per cent had product listings removed on Amazon, while 66 per cent of respondents had ads rejected on Google.
In a separate survey of 95 brands, creators, medical professionals, charities, consumers and professionals, carried out by CensHERship, 95 per cent of respondents reported at least one issue with the censorship of women’s health and/or sexual wellbeing content online, with 17% reporting up to 10. These were reported on platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube, X, LinkedIn and Google.
Among tose impacted are at-home fertility kits from Bea Fertility, vaginal health brand Aquafit Intimate, online sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing platform Geen, sexual health and wellbeing platform HANX, breastfeeding support app Lactapp, and gynaecological health platform Daye.
Bea Fertility ploughed months of work into becoming a Prime-rated seller on Amazon for its at-home fertility kit, building a bank of verified and positive customer reviews, and creating what’s known as ‘A+ content’ for its storefront.
But the Amazon reviews team rejected the page, taking issue with the use of the word ‘vagina’ and ‘vaginal canal’ within the description (there was no issue with the use of the word ‘semen’).
The company replaced the word ‘vagina’ with ‘birth canal’, despite feeling this was ‘insensitive’ and ‘crass’ given it is a fertility product, before pulling its products from Amazon at the end of January 2025.
Aquafit Intimate has faced wrongful restrictions on LinkedIn for a post related to World Menopause Day. Despite LinkedIn apologising for mistakenly identifying the content as nudity, a repost was again restricted and further posts about Endometriosis, Postpartum Recovery, and Vaginal Dysbiosis removed as “illegal products and services.”
“This creates financial barriers, restricts market access, and ultimately limits consumer access to science-based health information,” says CensHERship.
“There’s a clear link between this systemic digital suppression and the hindrance of progress in women’s healthcare.”
CensHERship co-founders, Anna O’Sullivan and Clio Wood.
“Vague and inconsistent explanations”
As well as content restriction, and removals which don’t appear to be in line with terms and conditions, brands say they have received ‘vague and inconsistent’ explanations for content takedowns, with little opportunity to appeal.
Daye, which has developed a HPV-screening tampon for detecting high-risk HPV infections, says an ad featuring a pregnant woman and referencing the word ‘vaginal’ was incorrectly flagged and removed under Google’s Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity policy. The company says this classification is both “inaccurate and discriminatory”.
“Daye has repeatedly reached out to both Meta and Google regarding misapplied content policies, seeking a proper resolution,” Valentina Milanova, founder & CEO of leading gynaecological health company and virtual women’s health clinic Daye, told Femtech World.
“The responses received have been generic, insufficient and lacking valid justification. These interactions reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of women’s and assigned female at birth health issues, evidenced by the inaccurate classification of relevant content.
“Throughout 2024 alone, Daye filed dozens of appeals but didn’t receive any meaningful explanations or corrective measures. This underscores the systemic failure of these platforms’ appeals processes and human review mechanisms.”
Valentina Milanova, Daye
Significant revenue losses
Some businesses report losing significant revenue due to blocked ads and suspensions, making it harder to compete and secure investment.
In the Center For Intimacy Justice report, survey respondents estimated annual revenue losses ranging from $10,000 to $1 million per company on Amazon alone, with Meta’s content restrictions causing potentially up to $5 million per entity in losses annually.
Female-focused condom brand, HANX, has had ads for its doctor-approved libido supplement for women, which is sold in major UK pharmacy retailers including Boots, rejected or heavily penalised. Its organic posts have also been repeatedly flagged as adult content, including a static post spotlighting the World Health Organisation’s report into decline of condom usage and rising STIs.
In December 2024, HANX’s Meta account was suspended for six-days, blocking its ability to reach followers and customers. It was only reinstated after a co-founder secured support from a senior Meta employee via a personal connection.
Speaking to Femtech World, HANX co-founder Dr Sarah Welsh, says: “Despite following Meta’s guidelines, HANX has faced repeated censorship – our educational posts flagged, our ads rejected, and even our entire account suspended without warning. At one point, our ad account was suspended entirely during a peak sales period, cutting off a vital revenue stream.
Meta’s own ad policy states that adverts can “promote sexual and reproductive health or wellness, as long as the focus is on health and not sexual pleasure or enhancement, and they target people aged 18 or older. This includes ads for: Birth control products, including condoms.”
However, despite being a common symptom of menopause, low libido in women is not considered to be a health condition under Meta’s guidelines. Meanwhile, male-focused erectile dysfunction ads are consistently approved.
“Meta’s restrictions have forced us to spend countless hours reworking content, appealing unfair rejections, and navigating unclear policies – only to see misleading health products and male-focused ads thrive,” continues Dr Welsh.
“This double standard doesn’t just hurt our business; it stops people from accessing safe, medically-backed information about their own health. Censorship like this isn’t just frustrating – it’s actively harming innovation in women’s health.”
“The silencing of women’s health must end”
With the support of CensHERship and The Case For Her, the startups are now urging the European Commission to investigate platform policies and hold tech giants accountable for applying content moderation rules fairly and transparently.
They are also calling on digital platforms to implement clear, non-discriminatory advertising guidelines that protect conversations about women’s health, and ensure there are accessible and effective appeal mechanisms.
Cristina Ljungberg, co-founder and partner at The Case for Her, commented: “When femtech companies and nonprofits providing critical health information are suppressed by Big Tech, they struggle to reach the people who need them most. This isn’t just about lost revenue—it’s about blocking access to essential care. The silencing of women’s health must end.”
Femtech World has contacted Meta, Amazon, LinkedIn and Google for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
AI may help speed breast cancer diagnosis for high-risk women after abnormal mammograms, a study suggests.
Women with abnormal mammograms often wait weeks to learn whether they have breast cancer.
Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley said an AI-guided workflow could help reduce that wait by quickly identifying those most likely to have the disease. Some women could move from imaging to evaluation, and sometimes biopsy, in a single day.
Dr Maggie Chung, first author of the study, said: “This is a really an exciting time.
“This moves us closer to personalised care, where we can tailor a plan so that each patient gets the right intervention at the right time.”
The study used an open-source AI model called Mirai.
The model was trained on hundreds of thousands of mammograms linked to patients’ cancer outcomes.
A mammogram is an X-ray scan of the breast used to look for signs of cancer. A biopsy involves taking a small tissue sample to test for disease.
The AI tool is designed to detect subtle patterns in screening mammograms and predict a woman’s cancer risk.
Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley applied the model to more than 4,100 screening mammograms at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
Mirai identified 525 women, about 12.7 per cent of screened patients, as high risk.
Those patients could receive an interpretation of their mammograms immediately after the scan and have additional diagnostic imaging for suspicious areas on the same day.
Some women who needed biopsies were also able to have them on the same day.
The researchers said Mirai reduced the wait time for diagnostic evaluation from several weeks to about an hour.
For women who were ultimately diagnosed with breast cancer, it reduced the average wait for biopsy from more than two months to fewer than 10 days.
The researchers stressed that Mirai does not replace radiologists or make diagnoses on its own.
Instead, it acts as a triage tool to help physicians identify the patients who can benefit most from accelerated care.
The team analysed more than 114,000 archival mammograms before launching the programme, to ensure the model would capture enough high-risk patients without overloading the clinic with too many expedited evaluations.
The researchers said they hope AI will support a more personalised approach to breast cancer screening tailored to each patient’s breast cancer risk.
Chung said: “Right now, many women follow the same screening schedule but their individual risk can be very different.
“AI risk assessment gives us the chance to identify the women most likely to benefit from expedited care and get them what they need.”
Adam Yala, senior author of the study and a data scientist at UC Berkeley, said: “This is a powerful example of how AI can be a collaborative partner for physicians.
“It shows how we can improve care when we bring clinicians and data scientists together to design these systems.”
Women with primary infertility may face a higher risk of early menopause and reach it about a year earlier, a study suggests.
The findings suggest women with primary infertility may be more likely to enter menopause before the age of 45.
The increased risk appeared most notable among women with unexplained infertility or a history of endometriosis.
Dr Stephanie Faubion, medical director for The Menopause Society, said: “This study shows that women with primary infertility, specifically those with unexplained infertility or a history of endometriosis, were at risk for early menopause.
“Given that early menopause is linked to adverse long-term health consequences, these women may benefit from counselling that they are at risk of early menopause.
“This will allow them to monitor for early menopause and to seek treatment with hormone therapy, if indicated.”
Early menopause is usually defined as menopause before age 45, while premature menopause is menopause before age 40.
Women who experience menopause earlier may face symptoms for longer and have a higher risk of long-term health problems.
These can include cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and neurocognitive disorders. Osteoporosis weakens bones, while neurocognitive disorders affect memory, thinking or brain function.
The study, highlighted by The Menopause Society, involved nearly 700 people, roughly half of whom had been diagnosed with primary infertility.
It found that women with a history of primary infertility underwent natural menopause about one year earlier than those without such a history.
Researchers found no association between infertility and premature menopause.
Infertility affects around one in six people globally and can have consequences beyond family planning.
Previous research has linked infertility with higher rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease, although causes vary and may involve genetic, hormonal, in-utero or lifestyle factors.
In-utero factors are influences that occur while a baby is developing in the womb.
Earlier studies looking at links between infertility and early or premature menopause have produced mixed results, with some not accounting for different types of infertility.
The new study suggested that women with unexplained infertility or a history of endometriosis may have an increased risk of early menopause.
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows elsewhere in the body. It can cause pain, heavy periods and fertility problems.
Known risk factors for early or premature menopause include tobacco use, low body mass index, not having given birth and starting periods at a younger age.
Women who have had more childbirths and those with a history of oral contraceptive use have previously been linked to later menopause.
The researchers said women with primary infertility may benefit from additional counselling because of the systemic and long-term health effects of early menopause.
They also said women should be encouraged to seek evaluation and treatment if they experience a new loss of menstrual cycles.
A non-profit has launched an endometriosis documentary featuring Amy Schumer and Marilyn Monroe as it pushes for changes in how the condition is treated and understood.
The Endometriosis Collective has launched to change how endometriosis is researched, treated and understood, starting with a documentary featuring stories from people including Amy Schumer and Marilyn Monroe.
The feature-length documentary, “End of the Cycle”, will premiere in New York on Tuesday, and The Endometriosis Collective is making the film free to stream online.
Schumer, a comedian, writer and actor, has previously spoken of how endometriosis left her “on the floor in pain, vomiting from the pain, the pain that nobody can see.”
Schumer is one of several celebrities featured in the documentary. Other contributors include dancer Julianne Hough, Olympic medallist Brittany Brown and actors Janel Parrish and Folake Olowofoyeku.
The Endometriosis Collective timed the documentary premiere to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s birth.
Monroe, who died in 1962, starred in films such as “Some Like It Hot” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
According to a biography published in 1985, Monroe’s endometriosis was so severe that it destroyed her marriages, her wish for children, her career and ultimately her life.
The Endometriosis Collective said the documentary shares newly uncovered information about Monroe’s experience with endometriosis.
The non-profit said the information connects Monroe’s story to the experiences of women across generations, highlighting how far awareness, research and care still have to go.
A representative of the Marilyn Monroe Estate said: “By sharing this part of her story through ‘End of the Cycle,’ we hope to honour her legacy in a way that brings visibility to endometriosis, encourages more open dialogue and helps inspire the research needed to create change.”
As part of the premiere, The Endometriosis Collective is holding a panel discussion.
Schumer, Brown and Olowofoyeku, the documentary’s co-directors Sammy Jaye and Soraya Simi, and medical experts are due to be part of the premiere.
AbbVie’s Orilissa and Sumitomo Pharma’s Myfembree are among the approved drugs for endometriosis pain.
Hough, one of the participants in the documentary, starred in an Orilissa campaign in 2017.
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