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September 8, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Most of us are familiar with our social media algorithms\u2019 uncanny ability to reflect what we think, or at least what they think we want.<\/p>\n For women like myself in their late 20s, this often manifests as baby, pregnancy and fertility content \u2013 even if we\u2019re not looking for it.<\/p>\n Social media algorithms, while murky, are informed in part by gender, age and activity on other platforms. There are other elements of the \u201cblack box\u201d social media algorithm that tech companies do not disclose.<\/p>\n The internet abounds with first-person accounts of social media pushing motherhood<\/a> and egg freezing<\/a> or even predicting pregnancy<\/a>. In June, Australian fertility providers were found to have been unlawfully tracking website visitors<\/a> and feeding their data to social media giants to chase them with advertising, while IVF clinics have been criticised for paying influencers<\/a> to promote their services.<\/p>\n With this in mind, I decided to start a little experiment, putting myself in the shoes of a woman trying to conceive in Australia.<\/p>\n I started a new Instagram account, setting my age to 30 \u2013 just a year before the median age of motherhood<\/a> in Australia, and chose a range of popular accounts to follow \u2013 from Cristian Ronaldo to Kylie Jenner (two of the most followed people on the planet), as well as three of Australia\u2019s fertility clinics with the biggest social media footprints, including Genea, Westmead and Adora.<\/p>\n Then, I started scrolling.<\/p>\n I made a point of lingering on some of the videos and posts from said fertility clinics, to start to give the algorithm a little nudge.<\/p>\n Then, I ventured over to my For You page (recommendations from Instagram based on one\u2019s algorithm), which is where things really started to get interesting.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick At first, the content shown was pretty broad \u2013 a vague smorgasbord of music, art and travel. But pretty soon, the baby content started rolling in \u2013 the picture-perfect, pristine Instagram families that are so far from reality. I clicked on and liked a few, and the next thing I knew, my entire For You page was awash with pastel baby clothes and placid toddlers.<\/p>\n Over the next few days, I continued to scroll, like, watch and share \u2013 showing a definite interest in fertility content, but also paying attention to other kinds of content like fashion and travel, to even things out a bit.<\/p>\n On one particular evening, scrolling Instagram Reels, I started being bombarded with wellness content focused on \u201cfertilitymaxxing<\/a>\u201d \u2013 videos of influencers, most of whom were not qualified health professionals \u2013 talking about the best foods and supplements to eat and exercises to do (or avoid) to maximise one\u2019s chances of conception.<\/p>\n \u2018Gave room for guilt to grow\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s an experience that Queensland mother Brittany Matsen knows first-hand.<\/p>\n When she was aged 22, Matsen started trying to get pregnant. Two years later, she and her husband embarked on a long and painful journey with in vitro fertilisation due to complications related to endometriosis, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome and low sperm count.<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s first child, Lennox, was born prematurely and died. She went on to conceive their next two children, Cove and Waverley, also through IVF. Through the process, Matsen experienced postnatal depression and anxiety and used social media on and off \u2013 which she says brought positive and negative feelings.<\/p>\n One type of content she recalls seeing was around \u201coptimising conception\u201d through eating certain foods (there is no evidence for improving egg quality<\/a> through lifestyle changes).<\/p>\n \u201cAt the start, it felt really positive and informative, but as the journey kind of dragged on and the more I was seeing, it then started to feel like, \u2018OK, well maybe I\u2019m not doing everything I could be, which gave room for guilt to grow\u2019,\u201d Matsen, who now has two children, says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was relentless and I specifically remember having moments where I had to delete social media for a while just so I could breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other hand, Matsen says positive quotes around navigating fertility \u201cgave me something to resonate with and ease that loneliness at times.\u201d<\/p>\n In parallel, Matsen\u2019s husband was seeing little of the sort on his own social media.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t ever recall him speaking about the topics that were coming up on mine, coming up on his. [His feed] stayed very orientated around sport and his interests, where the algorithm did just pump me full of everything related to motherhood,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n A \u2018gendered, individual responsibility\u2019<\/p>\n Dr Giselle Newton, a digital health sociologist at the University of Queensland, recently completed a study as part of the Australian Ad Observatory<\/a> project, which invites Australians to provide visibility into the targeted advertising of harmful products to particular groups.<\/p>\n Due to the personalised, ephemeral nature of social media advertising, no two feeds look the same.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no observability \u2013 so civil society, governments, nobody really knows what kind of advertising is out there in the digital space, making it really difficult to monitor and regulate,\u201d says Newton of the project\u2019s aims.<\/p>\n Newton and her team focused on fertility content, using a bespoke mobile app to screen record and identify advertising on 457 male and female participants\u2019 social media feeds.<\/p>\n Related Article From this, they pinpointed four recurring themes in which fertility ads:<\/p>\n \u201cConstructed fertility planning as a gendered, individual responsibility required well before intended pregnancy.\u201d\u201cPromoted individually tailored and customisable treatments and tests.\u201d\u201cConstructed infertility as solvable to increase the speed and chance of, and optimise, conception.\u201dAnd promoted services and products to finance fertility.<\/p>\n Newton says much of this advertising contained misinformation or misrepresented the evidence behind it \u2013 like the so-called \u201cfertility\u201d or AMH test<\/a>, or overstating the success rates<\/a> of IVF or egg-freezing.<\/p>\n Many experienced this as an \u201cintense burst\u201d, says Newton, with one participant seeing nine fertility ads within four minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s not just about one ad per se, but how this combination of ads shapes the information and messaging that people are receiving, the kinds of questions they\u2019re asking themselves about what\u2019s expected of them, the decisions they should make and their reproductive intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n The assisted reproductive industry, of course, is a billion-dollar, for-profit one that today extends beyond IVF clinics to fertility coaches, influencers, supplement brands and more.<\/p>\n Increasingly, it\u2019s priming women from early adulthood to enter what Newton refers to as the \u201cinfertility pipeline\u201d \u2013 helped by the fact that for users in their 30s or 40s, tech companies have decades of data to work with.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the idea that women of all ages, from 18 up, can be encouraged to use a different kind of fertility treatment depending on their life stage,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n For someone not yet ready to conceive, this might be promoting egg-freezing as an \u201cinsurance policy\u201d, whereas for someone navigating infertility it might be promoting supplements or encouraging them to switch fertility clinics.<\/p>\n Meta, owner of Instagram, does allow users to report advertising or personalise ad preferences \u2013 including content relating to parenting \u2013 though Newton says this doesn\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said \u201call businesses must comply with the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), which requires that businesses do not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct or make false or misleading representations\u201d.<\/p>\n Take an approach of balance<\/p>\n Social media can both support and hinder the journey of those trying to conceive, says Dr Erin Steele, clinical psychologist and director of clinical services at Gidget Foundation Australia, so it\u2019s not necessarily about forgoing it entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be really important to hear peer stories, particularly when you\u2019re struggling … it can give people a sense of \u2018I\u2019m not alone in my journey\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But it can also come at a vulnerable time when one might be \u201cmore susceptible to negative messages and intrusive thoughts, and may be less resilient to be able to manage this difficult information,\u201d says Steele.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIt is a period of increased worry, particularly where infertility does not always have a single or clear underlying cause. It can send people down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to work out what\u2019s happening, because as human beings we\u2019re driven to find a reason for things.\u201d<\/p>\n Steele suggests taking breaks and relying on support networks, following credible sources where possible, and, when in doubt, checking information with a trusted health professional who is familiar with your history.<\/p>\n Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox<\/a> every Monday.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d4abfe1c0838347ceeac0416f80305e1b664dfcf.jpeg\")
Photo: Aresna Villanueva<\/p>\n![\"Mollie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1b8bee1b08818475fb5a1b4be086251b787ade52.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Matsen,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/b92a23d025ea8972678a6cf85929c026b27c2786.jpeg\")
Matsen, pictured here with her daughter Waverley, went through a long and difficult journey with IVF for all three of her pregnancies. <\/p>\n![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d667aba7eede42ca402ec9858d216e5940600455.jpeg\")
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