Fertility Misinformation on Social Media
May 2026
Women's Health World has published its first independent research analysis examining the nature, scale, and reach of health misinformation on social media. The report focuses on fertility content across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok as an indicator of the broader challenge facing women's health online.
The research identifies four distinct misinformation archetypes, one dominant on each platform, and documents a structural engagement paradox: social media algorithms systematically reward harmful content with greater reach than evidence-based material.
On Facebook, predatory posts generated nearly three times the secondary audience of accurate ones. On TikTok, misleading content reached 2.6 times the audience of anecdotal content.
Harmful content does not merely coexist alongside accurate health information. It consistently outperforms it on every reach metric examined.
44% · TikTok harmful content rate
8.91M · Views on the single highest-reach harmful post
12.3M · Combined views on demonstrably false Instagram content
89% · Africa-targeted posts on Facebook rated predatory
The concentration of predatory material targeting African audiences is a particularly acute finding. On TikTok, 72.7 per cent of Africa-geotagged posts were rated Level 4, the highest risk category. On Facebook, the equivalent rate was 89 per cent.
This report is part of our Verified Voices initiative. A funded second phase will extend the analysis to all ten WHO priority areas for women's health across a significantly larger dataset.
Women's Health World welcomes enquiries from research funders, platform governance bodies, policy organisations, and public health institutions. Contact the research team via this website.
Further Information
For media enquiries, research collaboration, or to speak with our analysts about the findings in this report, please get in touch. Our team is available for interviews, briefings, and commentary on the evolving misinformation landscape.
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