“Elderly primigravida.” “Incompetent cervix.” “Depressed vagina.” These are real terms used by healthcare professionals with real patients. Half of women surveyed in a 2024 OnePoll study had encountered this kind of language from a clinician.
The consequences are not trivial — patients leave consultations too confused or intimidated to ask questions, shut out of a conversation about their own bodies.
This is a communication failure. And it is one that health brands have both the opportunity and the responsibility to address.
Women want to understand their bodies
Women are hungry for information about conditions they have or think they have.
OnePoll’s survey showed that 62% of women do research before seeking medical advice, with 85% turning to the internet first – no surprise there. And among black and black British women, the numbers are higher with 73% doing personal research.
Trust in what they find, however, is consistently low. Just 22% believe mainstream media is mostly or completely accurate on health topics, and 19% say the same about health and wellbeing social accounts. Accuracy matters, but it is not enough on its own. The other ingredient is empathy — understanding the feelings of the women you serve well enough to communicate in a way that actually reaches them.
Understanding your audience
The foundation of empathetic health communication is knowing your audience. What are their specific concerns? How do they prefer to receive information? And critically — what language do they use to describe their own condition?
Women and AFAB people want clear, expert-led communication that is also kind and avoids stereotypes.
Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust advised primary and secondary care professionals to use “cervical cell changes” rather than “pre-cancerous or abnormal cells” – because who wants to be labelled abnormal? Likewise, for many women a smear test is not “quick and easy”, so do not communicate that it is. Ask instead whether they have any worries or concerns. Small shifts in language, grounded in what patients actually experience, make a significant difference to whether women feel safe enough to engage.
Turning what you hear into how you communicate
Once you understand how your audience thinks and speaks about their health, the work is to reflect that back in everything you produce. This is where listening becomes communication.
Clue, the period-tracking app, built an encyclopaedia of content written in everyday language that acknowledges the emotional as well as physical dimensions of menstruation. Femtech company Elvie addresses the realities of breastfeeding — blocked milk ducts, the changing colour of breast milk — rather than the sanitised version. Period underwear company Thinx uses inclusive language and imagery to normalise menstruation across different bodies and experiences.
What these brands share is not a tone-of-voice document. They have done the work of understanding what women know, fear, and need — and built their communication around that. The result is trust. The 2024 Women’s Health Strategy survey found that 84% of women reported feeling unheard by healthcare professionals. Brands that listen first, then communicate, are filling a gap that healthcare has left wide open.
The takeaway: empathy is key
Getting the communication right means attending to a few consistent principles.
Use the vocabulary of your audience rather than clinical or technical language that leaves women lost. Acknowledge what they are going through — validate the experience before offering the solution. Be inclusive: the women you serve are not a homogeneous group, and language that works for one may exclude another. And keep the focus on the person you are serving, not on your product.
None of this is complicated. But it requires that you have done the listening first. Understand what women know, what they fear, and what words they reach for when they are trying to make sense of their own bodies. The communication that follows from that research will be more accurate, more trusted, and more useful than anything built on assumption.