Women's Health Censorship: Why "Vulvodynia" Gets Flagged and What We're Losing Because of It

Social media platforms are systematically censoring medically accurate women's health content. Words like vulva, vagina, and vulvodynia are being flagged, shadow banned, and suppressed - not because they're explicit, but because the systems designed to moderate content were never built to tell the difference. This is about accurate, life-saving health information being treated as obscene.The problem with this is it is enforcing the deep-rooted societal stigma around topics like menstruation, menopause and sexual wellbeing - the very stigma that advocates, clinicians and educators are working to dismantle.In this episode, I break down what's actually happening: the data behind the censorship, the companies and creators being penalized, the double standards baked into platform advertising policies, and why self-censorship might be the most damaging consequence of all. I also look at the historical context - how shame was literally built into the language of female anatomy centuries ago, and how that legacy is still shaping what we're allowed to say online today.If you've ever wondered why health creators use asterisks in place of vowels or write "s*x" on Instagram, this episode is for you.Connect with MathildeIG: @theworldstightestcommunity or [email protected] in this episode:Dr. Aziza Sessai - UK-based GP and women's health advocate, founder of the "They Are Not Bad Words" campaignDr. Philippa Kaye - GP and women's health advocateJackie Rotman - Founder of the Center for Intimacy Justice, whose investigation was published in the New York Times (2019) and later cited in US Senate hearingsCensHERship - Coalition focused on the censorship of women's health content, authors of the "Censorship Revealed" white paper and the Women's Health Visibility AllianceRachel E. Gross - Author of "Vagina Obscura"Intimate Rose - Pelvic floor dilator company whose products were classified as adult content by MetaDaye - Diagnostic tampon company for HPV screening whose ads were rejected under adult nudity policiesHanx - Women's libido supplement available in Boots, repeatedly penalized by Meta advertising• Hims, Xseed, Mojo - Men's health companies whose equivalent ads were approved without issue