When half the population is the target of industries, who ensures the science, safety and transparency behind what is being sold?

Women’s bodies are one of the most powerful drivers of global consumer markets. From menstruation to pregnancy, postpartum recovery to menopause, entire industries have grown around biological experiences that half the population will navigate during their lifetime. Yet the frameworks designed to protect, inform and empower those consumers have not always evolved at the same pace.

Products promise relief, optimisation, balance, confidence, youth, performance. Marketing is sophisticated, language persuasive, and demand enormous. But behind the messaging lies a more complex question: how much of what is being sold to women is grounded in robust science, transparent evidence and responsible regulation?

“The Business of Women’s Bodies” opens a conversation at the intersection of commerce, health, research and public policy. It looks at the expanding markets built around women’s health and wellness, and the persistent gaps that still shape them: gender bias in research and clinical testing, blurred lines between marketing claims and scientific validation, and regulatory systems that often struggle to keep pace with fast-moving industries.

From hormonal health products to fertility tracking, supplements, menopause treatments or postpartum recovery services, the discussion examines how biological processes have become commercial categories, and what this means for women as consumers navigating these spaces.

Beyond critique, the conversation focuses on what truly empowered consumption could look like: clearer standards of evidence, better transparency, more inclusive research design, and stronger collaboration between policymakers, regulators, healthcare professionals and industry.

At stake is a simple but fundamental question: what would it take for women to make choices about their bodies in markets designed not only to sell to them, but to serve them.

This event is co-organized with Euroconsumers

Gathering six national consumer organisations and giving voice to a total of more than 6 million people in Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Brazil, Euroconsumers is the world's leading consumer group in innovative information, personalised services and the defence of consumer rights.