Health Minister Josie Osborne convened a roundtable on women’s health at the legislature on Monday (March 9), and participants agreed that while the province is doing a good job at expanding women’s health options, more needs to be done to combat misinformation.
Examples include incorrect information spreading online about side effects associated with contraception use.
“It’s really hard for young people to know what is true and what is not true,” said Dr. Laura Schummers, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia and reproductive health policy researcher. “And we need cross-disciplinary approaches that support youth and young adults to find the right information to make evidence-based decisions that are right for them or their reproductive goals.”
Osborne brought the panel together as part of Women’s Health Research Month. She highlighted progress on initiatives ranging from prescription coverage for menopause treatment to at-home screening for human papillomavirus (HPV).
The health minister said she was “particularly struck” by the conversation about misinformation and disinformation, and the need to ensure people have credible sources of information
Dr. Jen Gunter, a well-known gynecologist and author, appeared by video call and echoed this, calling misinformation a health crisis unto itself. Gunter is a Canadian living in the United States, but is working to return to Canada and move to British Columbia.
She said better systems are needed to educate people to know the difference between what is true and what is not, citing misinformation about measles vaccines as a prime example of what can happen when people begin to doubt established health research. Measles has resurfaced in recent years due to vaccine hesitancy, leading to outbreaks across Canada.
For women, relying on inaccurate information can have a troublesome impact on their ability to make decisions for themselves.
“Misinformation is misogyny,” Gunter said. “What it does is it robs women of agency because they can no longer make an evidence-based decision.”