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Influencers selling fake cures for polycystic ovary syndrome
For 12 years Sophie had been experiencing painful periods, weight gain, depression and fatigue.
She had been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal condition that affects about one in 10 women, but she struggled to get medical help.
She felt her only option was to take her health into her own hands, and it was at this moment that Kourtney Simmang came up on her recommended page on Instagram.
Kourtney promised to treat the “root cause” of PCOS, even though researchers have not yet identified one. She offered customers laboratory tests, a “health protocol”- a diet and supplement plan – and coaching for $3,600 (£2,800). Sophie signed up, paying hundreds of dollars more for supplements through Kourtney’s affiliate links.
Dr Jen Gunter, a gynaecologist and women’s health educator, said Kourtney wasn’t qualified to order the tests she was selling, and that they had limited clinical use.
After nearly a year Sophie’s symptoms hadn’t improved, so she gave up Kourtney’s cure.
“I left the programme with a worse relationship to my body and food, [feeling] that I didn’t have the capacity to improve my PCOS,” she said.
Kourtney did not respond to requests for comment.
Medically unqualified influencers – many with more than a million followers – are exploiting the absence of an easy medical solution for PCOS by posing as experts and selling fake cures.
Some describe themselves as nutritionists or “hormone coaches”, but these accreditations can be done online in a matter of weeks.
The BBC World Service tracked the most-watched videos with a “PCOS” hashtag on TikTok and Instagram during the month of September and found that half of them spread false information.
Latest News
List of nominations in full for Brit Awards 2025
Across 14 categories, 70 artists are nominated and those include some of the biggest names in UK music and beyond.
The winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony at London’s O2 Arena on 1 March, hosted by Jack Whitehall.
Here are the nominations in full:
Artist of the year
Beabadoobee
Central Cee
Charli XCX
Dua Lipa
Fred Again
Jamie xx
Michael Kiwanuka
Nia Archives
Rachel Chinouriri
Sam Fender
Group of the year
Bring Me The Horizon
Coldplay
The Cure
Ezra Collective
The Last Dinner Party
Album of the year
Charli XCX – Brat
The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism
Ezra Collective – Dance, No One’s Watching
The Last Dinner Party – Prelude to Ecstasy
Song of the year
Artemas – i like the way you kiss me
The Beatles – Now And Then
BL3SS x CamrinWatsin (feat. bbyclose) – Kisses
Central Cee (feat. Lil Baby) – BAND4BAND
Charli XCX Ft Billie Eilish – Guess featuring Billie Eilish
Chase & Status / Stormzy – Backbone
Coldplay – feelslikeimfallinginlove
Dua Lipa – Training Season
Ella Henderson (feat. Rudimental) -Alibi
JADE – Angel Of My Dreams
Jordan Adetunji- KEHLANI
KSI (feat Trippie Redd) – Thick Of It
Myles Smith – Stargazing
Sam Ryder – You’re Christmas To Me
Sonny Fodera/Jazzy/D.O.D – Somedays
Best new artist
English Teacher
Ezra Collective
The Last Dinner Party
Myles Smith
Rachel Chinouriri
International artist of the year
Adrianne Lenker
Asake
Benson Boone
Beyoncé
Billie Eilish
Chappell Roan
Kendrick Lamar
Sabrina Carpenter
Taylor Swift
Tyler, The Creator
International group of the year
Amyl and The Sniffers
Confidence Man
Fontaines D.C.
Future & Metro Boomin
Linkin Park
International song of the year
Benson Boone – Beautiful Things
Beyoncé – Texas Hold ‘Em
Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather
Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!
Djo – End of Beginning
Eminem – Houdini
Hozier – Too Sweet
Jack Harlow – Lovin On Me
Noah Kahan – Stick Season
Post Malone (Feat. Morgan Wallen) – I Had Some Help
Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso
Shaboozey – A Bar Song (Tipsy)
Taylor Swift (feat. Post Malone) – Fortnight
Teddy Swims – Lose Control
Tommy Richman – Million Dollar Baby
Best alternative/rock act
Beabadoobee
The Cure
Ezra Collective
The Last Dinner Party
Sam Fender
Best hip-hop/grime/rap act
Central Cee
Dave
Ghetts
Little Simz
Stormzy
Best dance act
Becky Hill
Charli xcx
Chase & Status
Fred again..
Nia Archives
Best pop act
Charli xcx
Dua Lipa
JADE
Lola Young
Myles Smith
Best R&B act
Cleo Sol
Flo
Jorja Smith
Michael Kiwanuka
Raye
Rising star
Winners: Myles Smith
Elmiene
Good Neighbours
Entertainment
Brat to Brit Awards: Charli XCX leads nominations with five
Charli XCX leads this year’s Brit Awards with five nominations, including a nod for album of the year with Brat.
She is also nominated for artist of the year, best pop and dance act and song of the year with Guess, featuring Billie Eilish, which went to number one in August.
Her sixth studio album was released in June and grew into a cultural movement – Brat was crowned Collins Dictionary 2024 word of the year and it even reached US politics with presidential candidate Kamala Harris giving her social media a brat rebrand.
Seven-time Brit winner Dua Lipa has received four nominations including pop act which she won last year.
List of Brit nominations in full
Fashion
From The Apprentice to Wicked, the 2025 Oscar nominations are the most political ever
The contenders for the film industry’s biggest prizes this year represent a range of genres and styles. But many are united by a common thread: they take on contentious topics with ferocious energy.
A fabulous range of films has been nominated for Academy Awards this year, from a shiny Broadway musical to a fact-based South American drama, from a rollicking farce about a stripper to an impressionistic period piece set in a Florida reform school. From a distance, it might appear as if the Academy’s voters had covered just about every genre and mood that cinema has to offer. But when you look closer, it’s remarkable how many of the nominees have something in common. In their own distinctive ways, these films take on contemporary issues with enough ferocious energy to make this one of the most political selections in the history of the Oscars.
In the case of The Apprentice, the political aspect is inescapable. Ali Abbasi’s film is a controversial biopic of newly inaugurated president Donald Trump, concentrating on his years as an aspiring real-estate mogul in New York. In October, Trump denounced the film as a “cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job”. The Academy seems to have liked the film: The Apprentice received two acting nominations, one for Sebastian Stan, who plays Trump himself, and one for Jeremy Strong, who co-stars as his mentor, Roy Cohn.
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