A quantitative analysis of TikTok content on fertility and assisted reproductive technology.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Can the analysis of TikTok posts related to fertility and assisted reproduction technology better characterize the types of information shared, potential biases, and relative engagement?

DESIGN

Using a new TikTok account posing as a woman of reproductive age in September 2024, posts were gathered using fertility- and infertility-related search terms. Descriptive post statistics were extracted, and reviewers coded each post for perceived patient demographics, creator type, post content, type of fertility treatments mentioned, and emotional tone.

RESULTS

In total, 1905 TikTok posts were reviewed, amounting to 1,808,310,047 cumulative views and 117,087,911 cumulative likes. The majority of content creators were patients with fertility challenges (66.82%), followed by physicians (12.39%). Personal posts related to experience were most common (61.36%), followed by educational posts (28.45%). The most popular search terms in terms of both views and likes were 'infertility', 'fertility' and 'IVF' (P < 0.0001). Posts deemed to have a positive emotional tone received significantly more likes than neutral posts (P < 0.05), despite having fewer overall views. While most posts were created by patients with a light skin tone (52.36%), these posts did not differ in emotional tone or receive more engagement.

CONCLUSION

TikTok content about personal infertility experiences is more prevalent than content created by healthcare professionals, and broad terms such as 'infertility' and positive patient stories attract significantly more engagement than medical terminology or neutral information. It is suggested that physicians should use this information to better engage viewers on social media in order to provide balanced content and combat the spread of misinformation.