Health information you can trust
How to tell good health information from bad, what a study actually proves, how to spot marketing dressed up as medicine, and when to get a second opinion.
- 1Good and bad health informationAsk who's behind a source, who pays for it, where its facts come from, whether experts review it and when it was updated. Personal stories on social media can help people feel less alone, but they aren't evidence.
- 2What a study actually provesA link between two things isn't proof that one causes the other. Look at what kind of study it was, who was in it, and whether a risk is reported as relative or absolute. Women were left out of much of the research that medicine relies on.
- 3Marketing dressed up as medicineSupplements aren't approved by the FDA before they're sold, and they can't legally claim to treat or cure disease. Tests and products sold straight to consumers, like hormone panels and "hormone balancing" plans, often promise more than the science supports.
- 4Second opinions and speaking upGetting a second opinion is normal and your right, especially for a serious diagnosis, surgery, or symptoms that aren't getting better. Bring records and written questions, track symptoms, and ask for what you need.
- QuizA short quiz on this section. Try again for new questions.
Where can I learn more?
- MedlinePlus (NIH): Checklist for evaluating internet health information
- TikTok videos about hormonal birth control often misinform (Contemporary OB/GYN, on an ACOG 2025 meeting abstract)
- ACOG Committee Statement 22: Anticipatory counseling regarding ovarian-factor fertility decline (2025)
- NCCIH (NIH): Reduced mortality risks and correlation vs. causation
- Understanding and communicating epidemiological measures of risk and benefit, Family Practice 2022
- Science policies and practice of including and excluding women from clinical studies, Frontiers in Physiology 2026
- Sex differences in pharmacokinetics predict adverse drug reactions in women, Biol Sex Differ 2020
- National Academies: To advance women's health research, NIH should form new institute (2024)
- FDA: FDA 101, dietary supplements
- ACOG: The menopause years
- IAPMD: About PMDD
- ACOG: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
- Association between biomarkers of ovarian reserve and infertility among older women of reproductive age, JAMA 2017
- Women with endometriosis or adenomyosis face 10- to 11-year diagnostic delays (Contemporary OB/GYN, on a 2026 Journal of Women's Health study)
- Wellbeing of Women: "Just a Period" survey results
- Cleveland Clinic: When to get a second opinion
- King's College Hospital NHS: Seeking a second opinion