Ahead of national Fertility Awareness Week, experts are warning people not to seek out fertility advice on TikTok. The social platform has seen an explosion of searches for information related to infertility, conception and pregnancy, but specialists are advising people to stick to trusted sources.
On TikTok, posts which feature the hashtag #ttccommunity – the ttc part standing for trying to conceive – have received more than 1.3 billion views to date. Meanwhile, #eggretrieval has had more than 50 million views and there have been 11.4 million views of posts about #unexplainedinfertility. The advice shared in the videos is not moderated nor fact-checked.
Fertility experts warn TikTok is not the place to seek out any kind of medical advice and guidance, with some TikTok influencers now offering baseless advice or even charging for spurious services such as fertility horoscopes, psychic pregnancy readings or ‘special’ herbal teas to help boost chances of getting pregnant. Others, including some medical professionals, may be providing generalised advice or snappy, simplified tips which shouldn’t be taken at face value by TikTok users, say the experts.
