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PATIENT PERSPECTIVES The Stigma Shroud: Comparison of Female vs Male Social Media Search Involving Pelvic and Sexual Health Conditions

By: Sherrie Palm, Mary Pippen, Sarah Abdelhameed, Susana Hernandez, Hugo Davila, MD | Posted on: 01 May 2022

Introduction and Objectives

Our goals were to evaluate the volume of female vs male searches and posts regarding stigmatizing pelvic and sexual health issues, and to distinguish the variation between overall social media patient posts and professional social media posts (fig. 1).

Methods

On March 2021, a search was undertaken using several diagnoses and symptoms related to female vs male pelvic and sexual health disorders. The terms pelvic organ prolapse vs erectile dysfunction; tissues bulging from the vagina vs premature ejaculation; female urinary incontinence vs male urinary incontinence and female low sex drive vs male low sex drive were searched to capture presence within Google, YouTube®, Facebook®, Twitter®, Instagram® and LinkedIn® (LI) feeds. Exclusion criteria for analysis included non-English language search and scientific articles published on PubMed® or Google ScholarTM (fig. 2).

Results

Female social media searches vs LI posts were a) pelvic organ prolapse: 14.5 million vs LI 640 posts; b) tissues bulging from the vagina: 29.8 million vs 8 LI posts; c) female urinary incontinence: 33 million vs 451 LI posts and d) female low sex drive: 425 million vs LI 251 posts. Total female overall search results were 502.3 million vs total LI posts of 1,350. Female search results equal 372,074 per 1 post in LI. Male results were a) erectile dysfunction: 86.7 million vs 623 LI posts; b) premature ejaculation: 142 million vs 645 LI posts; c) male urinary incontinence: 49.9 million vs 334 LI posts and d) male low sex drive: 142 million vs 281 LI posts. Total male overall search results were 420.6 million vs total LI posts of 1,883. Male searches equal 223,048 per 1 post in LI.

Figure 1. Urological health stigma.

Figure 2. Lay vs professional pelvic and sexual health social media (SM) posts. UI, urinary incontinence.

Conclusions

Female low sex drive was the most common overall female social media query. Male low sex drive and premature ejaculation were the most common overall male social media queries. Male health searches generated more professional posts as compared to female searches. An additional observation is that professional posts in LI are related to diagnosis rather than symptoms. These results may clarify an opportunity to improve communication in social media.