• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

Women’s health app Flo Health, largely known for its period tracking, is running a “Make Dismissal History” campaign. Street postings and social media partnerships highlight how the culture and media have historically overlooked symptoms of female ill health.

A series of ads posted by the Uncle agency in the New York City neighborhoods of SoHo, the West Village and Williamsburg feature a “timeline” of newspaper-like headlines across the centuries -- from the “wandering wombs” of 400 B.C. to the “hysterical housewives” of the 1950s to today’s “mid-life crisis.”

On social media, the app has partnered with two experts -- health historian and author of “Unwell Women” Elinor Cleghorn and OB-GYN Dr. Sameena Rahman (@GynoGirl) -- on a series of social posts covering historical facts and current clinical realities respectively.

“Women of all ages and walks of life have felt the pain of having their health experiences dismissed,” Rina Hahn, who joined Flo Health as CMO in August, tells Marketingh Daily, “so this campaign is really for all of them.”

“But,” Hahn notes,” for women who are going through or about to go through perimenopause (ages 35+), it is particularly prescient as this is an area of women's health that has been especially overlooked and under-researched throughout history.”

To allow the campaign’s audience to make use of the information being provided, Flo is providing a month of free access to its premium perimenopause features (Peri Score, Peri Symptom Tracker and Menopause Timeline).

Flo says that “Make Dismissal History” was inspired by an August in-app survey of 1,493 of its perimenopausal users, in which 53% “felt that their symptoms were dismissed or not taken seriously,” and that, as a result, 69% of those women had delayed seeking medical care.

“Gaslighting” of women’s health concerns was also evident in another survey result: 66% of those who felt their perimenopause symptoms were dismissed were told, "It's just part of getting older."

On the positive side, 63% of respondents said that “understanding their symptoms (e.g., how severe they are, what they might mean) would help them better advocate for themselves at the doctor's office.”

"While we can't change history,” Hahn said in a statement alluding to the campaign’s in-house creative, “we can work to create a future where women feel more informed and prepared to advocate for themselves in medical settings."