Struggling to fall pregnant, Barbora Gray remembers washing her hair with raw eggs after seeing a post online.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0For the first time, I approached social media from a place of vulnerability\u00a0\u00bb she says. \u00ab\u00a0It wasn’t healthy.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0What started as something very innocent, looking at recipes, ended up with me being anxious about everything from shampoo to what I’m washing my dishes with.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old, from Hebburn, South Tyneside, has now launched She Thrives, an online social community to dispel myths, but also to break down taboos about women’s health.<\/p>\n
The account covers issues like the menopause, mental wellbeing, periods and fertility, and gives women in the North East a \u00ab\u00a0safe space\u00a0\u00bb to find accurate and evidence-based information on women’s health.<\/p>\n
The mum hopes She Thrives will \u00ab\u00a0transform the way women discuss health\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
She says she was inspired to make a difference after reading the Woman of the North report, which was released by Health Equity North in 2024.<\/p>\n
It found women living in the North of England were more likely to work longer, face greater ill health and more likely to be victims of domestic violence than women elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Barbora, who works in healthcare communications, says she \u00ab\u00a0knew there were people that did have the answers\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
She Thrives is being backed by the North East and North Cumbria NHS Integrated Care Board, The Northern Health Science Alliance and several NHS trusts.<\/p>\n
It is also being supported by individual medical professionals working in the region who are concerned about content that women are being influenced by on social media.<\/p>\n
Dr Katherine Gilmore, a consultant in community gynaecology and sexual and reproductive healthcare at the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, says she sees patients \u00ab\u00a0all the time\u00a0\u00bb who have seen inaccurate information.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0One of the main barriers to healthcare for women at the moment is time,\u00a0\u00bb she explains. \u00ab\u00a0Social media is the perfect place for them to go to, isn’t it?\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
But she says the downside to that is misinformation.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0You can really tell the patients who are well informed versus the women who have seen lots of scare stories. And it can be a real worry.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
She Thrives is being welcomed by women in the North East.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0When I was going through stuff there was nothing like this there,\u00a0\u00bb says Kate Scott, from Hebburn. \u00ab\u00a0What Barbora’s doing is going to help my daughter and grandchildren in future.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Sarah McEwan, from Jarrow, is also supportive.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Women work really hard, bringing up our families, working full-time, so this is highlighting that we should focus on ourselves,\u00a0\u00bb she says.<\/p>\n
Alison Quinn, also from Jarrow, says: \u00ab\u00a0A lot of my friends have been anxious about things they have read online and I think this is really helpful.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Struggling to fall pregnant, Barbora Gray remembers washing her hair with raw eggs after seeing a post online. \u00ab\u00a0For the first time, I approached social media from a place of vulnerability\u00a0\u00bb she says. \u00ab\u00a0It wasn’t healthy. \u00ab\u00a0What started as something very innocent, looking at recipes, ended up with me being anxious about everything from shampoo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}