A multi-stakeholder framework to address health misinformation as a systemic threat to women health

Health misinformation disproportionately affects women through intersecting systemic failures: scarce gender-specific evidence, constrained care access, commercial exploitation of health information gaps, lack of training, and persistent gender bias within healthcare. Fragmented responses have proven insufficient. A coordinated, multi-stakeholder framework is needed. Over 11 months, 17 professionals from the Femmes de Santé collective worked on a volunteer basis to develop an evidence-based white paper based on a literature review, 35 structured interviews with experts from various sectors, and a mapping of stakeholder influences in oncology and mental health. A nationally representative survey (n = 1,003 women, CSA Analytics, 2025) helped ground these recommendations in the population’s actual needs and perceptions. 57% French women reported health decisions influenced by inaccurate information. Reported misinformation sources included not only social media and influencers (37%) but healthcare professionals and institutions (34%), confirming system-wide accountability gaps that no single actor can address alone. Recommendations emerged from a prospective “desirable futures” methodology identifying seven societal transformations: from passive mistrust toward informed autonomy and from fragmented supply toward a co-operative, trusted ecosystem. These were translated into role-specific, actionable recommendations for seven stakeholder groups: misinformation checklists for clinicians; training modules for politicians; editorial verification protocols for journalists; community relay formats for patient associations; and transparency obligations for platforms and wellness industry actors. Addressing health misinformation as a women’s health equity issue requires moving beyond individual-level interventions toward systemic co-responsibility. This framework, co-produced through civil society, offers a replicable governance model for European public health systems.

Key messages

• Addressing health misinformation as a women’s health equity issue requires moving beyond individual-level interventions toward systemic co-responsibility.

• Produced by a civil society collective, this evidence-based framework translates the challenge of women’s health misinformation into role-specific recommendations for seven stakeholder groups.