Selling misleading fertility hope

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The global fertility supplements industry has an estimated worth of over 2 billion dollars, and it’s growing. Some experts have raised the alarm around poor regulation of companies and the products they sell.

In this episode of BBC Trending we investigate Pink Stork and other supplement companies which say they can help you get pregnant. Now, they're being promoted heavily on social media and beyond. What is the science behind some of the claims?

And what does this say about regulation of the supplements industry as a whole?

Producer & Presenter: Kayleen Devlin Editor: Flora Carmichael

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	chances are you've been targeted by ads and influencer posts nudging you towards a tea,
0:06.2	gummy or capsule you didn't even know you needed. If you have poor sleep, you need magnesium glycate.
0:12.6	Does your immune system need a multivitamin? I bought some apple cider vinegar gummies off TikTok shop.
0:18.3	The world of supplements is vast and growing.
0:22.9	And in this episode of BBC trending,
0:26.4	I'll be taking a closer look at one small but booming corner of it,
0:28.4	the fertility supplement industry.
0:30.4	If I think about 15 years or so ago,
0:34.5	people really didn't ask about supplements beyond folic acid.
0:36.9	I'm Kailene Devlin from BBC Verify, and earlier this year, my online feed was dominated
0:40.0	by ads for various fertility-related supplements.
0:43.6	The claims were compelling, that there was a question mark around how much evidence
0:47.4	actually supported them.
0:48.9	They don't have to provide that evidence to anybody.
0:50.9	They just have to promise FDA that they actually have that evidence.
0:54.3	In this program, you'll hear about one company which is particularly active in marketing
0:58.5	its products on social media and claims they are backed by science and built on faith.
1:03.6	I felt really called by God to be able to help other women with their bodies. And we'll hear
1:09.2	a personal account, expert opinions, and find out how a loosely regulated
1:13.7	market is being further exploited online.
1:20.5	At one point, I started to notice a pattern.
1:24.4	Every time I went online, the algorithm seemed increasingly fixated on my biological clock.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.