Who first came up with the label ‘feminine hygiene’? That person has a lot to answer for. Words have power, and that euphemistic phrase – with its suggestion that women’s health is somehow dirty and shameful – has played a big role in reducing the category into something stigmatised, silenced and ignored.
Thankfully, retail has started to move away from that framing. In 2022, Boots renamed its ‘feminine hygiene’ aisle to ‘period products’, followed by Asda. It was an important shift towards clearer and more factual labelling, but it only solved part of the problem.
Women’s health extends far beyond periods. Perimenopause, fertility, PCOS and vulval health are all still inconsistently represented and signposted across stores and online, and when they are, the messaging often shouts ‘there’s something wrong with her’. The products exist, but the category still lacks visibility and coherence.
That matters. When something is hard to find or awkward to talk about, it’s easier to ignore. Over time, avoidance becomes silence, and silence hardens into stigma. And that stigma is directly affecting the health outcomes of real women.
Visibility for vulval health
A few alarming statistics: 47% of women can only name five or fewer of the 48 recognised menopause symptoms, and only one in four women treat them when they experience them.
A recent report from Luna Daily revealed that women feel more uncomfortable talking about their vulva than their sex life or income, with one in three missing routine cervical screenings as a result. Nearly a fifth feel embarrassed buying menopause products, and even if they didn’t, they’d struggle to find them: 71% of women say relevant products are not clearly labelled or easy to find.
Better visibility can change all of this, and both supermarkets and fmcg retailers are uniquely positioned to lead. They operate at scale, curate trusted product ranges, and sit at the centre of daily shopping behaviours where health, nutrition and wellbeing already intersect. Research from Ocado suggests 81% of women would feel more confident buying menopause support if supermarkets provided better advice and signposting.
Some are already making good headway. Ocado has created the UK’s largest menopause aisle, stocking more than 300 MTick-certified products. Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have rolled out menopause-focused bays and online hubs. Boots, meanwhile, has invested in pharmacist training, expert partnerships and dedicated spaces.
But there is so much more that can be done.
Experts by necessity
Let’s be clear: this is a commercial opportunity. The World Economic Forum predicts women’s health will become a $1 trillion market by 2040. As awareness grows, demand will follow. Retailers that build trust early by investing in consistent communication and visibility will be better positioned as the category scales. The same is true for the fmcg brands they stock, many of which are innovating quickly but still struggle with discoverability in store and online.
And don’t forget the power of collaboration. Many brands in this space are already experts by necessity. Who understands menstrual health better than platforms like Flo, built on years of data? Who knows more about healthier, lower-impact period care than brands such as TOTM, whose credibility is rooted in product design and lived experience? Retailers don’t need to manufacture authority – they can borrow it.
But this can’t be a one-off campaign or an International Women’s Day activation. Supermarkets and retailers have the opportunity to turn a fragmented category into a coherent ecosystem. One that helps shoppers understand not just what to buy, but why, when, and for whom.
Visibility builds confidence. Confidence drives behaviour. And when women’s health is both easy to find and stigma-free, the category can finally move forward, culturally and commercially.
Kirsty Hathaway is executive creative director at Joan Creative London
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