#infertility in Brazil: an analysis of authorship and post content on Instagram

To use hashtag and content analysis to determine the prevalence, authorship, and types of fertility-related and oncofertility information shared on Instagram in Brazil.

Eleven fertility-related hashtags were chosen according to https://www.tagsfinder.com/: #infertility, #ivf, #endometriosis, #tryingotconceive, #maternity, #humanreproduction, #pregnancy, #invitrofertilization, #assistedreproduction, #pregnant, #difficulttogetpregnant. For oncofertility, the hashtags were #cancerandpregnancy, #oocytecryopreservation), #oncofertility, and #fertilitypreservation. Posts receiving over 20 comments in March 2021 were analyzed for topic and content. They were divided into six categories (educational, patient experience, outreach, emotional, social support, and coping mechanisms) before being analyzed by three authors. Authorship was divided into healthcare professionals (HCP) and lay people (LP). Posts not written in Brazilian Portuguese, videos, reposts of another account, and commercial posts were excluded.

A total of 220 posts with fertility-related terms were analyzed. HCP accounted for 52% (n=114) and LP for 48% (n=106). Most HCP posts were made by medical doctors (n=78; 68.4%) and fertility clinics (n=27; 23.6%). Authorship analysis (HCP vs. LP) for each hashtag was as follows: #infertility (35% vs. 65%), #ivf (35% vs. 65%), #endometriosis (45% vs. 55%), #tryingtoconceive (65% vs. 35%), #maternity (LP 100%), #humanreproduction (20% vs. 80%), #pregnancy (95% vs. 5%), #invitrofertilization (50% vs. 50%), #assistedreproduction (5% vs. 95%), #pregnant (85% vs. 15%), #difficulttogetpregnant (5% vs. 95%). The category breakdown was as follows: 39% educational, 19% emotional, 16% social support, 13% patient experience, 9% coping, and 4% outreach. A total of 98 posts with #oncofertility were retrieved. Most (77.5%; n=62) were written by HCP. They fell into the following categories: 55% educational, 15% patient experience, 12.5% emotional, 11.2% support, and 3.2% coping.

Both HCP and LP write about major fertility topics on Instagram. Oncofertility appears to gain less attention. In Brazil, educational content, followed by emotional content, prevails on Instagram.