Intimate Health Is Still Too Embarrassing to Talk About

We are supposedly the generation that talks about everything: therapy, birth control, body hair, all of it, out loud and on camera. But a new national survey suggests there is one subject where the openness stops short, and it sits very close to home. According to research commissioned by intimate-care brand Summer's Eve and carried out by OnePoll among two thousand U.S. women in September 2026, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) believe women are more comfortable discussing intimate health and wellness than they were five years ago, yet more than half (52 percent) have personally avoided talking to someone about an intimate health concern because they felt embarrassed or uncomfortable.

That gap, between how open we think the culture is and how awkward the actual conversation feels, is the story. Only 18 percent of respondents believe vaginal and vulvar health is discussed openly and comfortably in society today, while nearly a third say the conversation is becoming more open even as stigma and awkwardness linger. And when women do talk about their anatomy, most are still speaking in code: 57 percent say they always, often, or sometimes use a euphemism, nickname, or coded language instead of anatomical terms like "vagina" or "vulva," largely because it feels less embarrassing, more socially acceptable, or spares everyone else the discomfort.

Even Gen Z Is Squirming

The awkwardness is not a generational hand-me-down that younger women are shrugging off. In fact, the survey found that 61 percent of Gen Z respondents have avoided discussing an intimate health concern because they felt embarrassed or uncomfortable, compared with under half of Boomers. Gen Z respondents were also more than twice as likely as Boomers to say they always reach for euphemisms instead of anatomical terms. That finding cuts against the stereotype of a generation fluent in therapy-speak and body positivity, and it suggests the pressure to perform confidence online may be masking private unease. At the same time, three in five Gen Z respondents said humor makes intimate health conversations more comfortable, pointing to a way in that does not feel like a lecture.

Humor Opens the Door, but Honesty Walks Through

Across all ages, 56 percent of women said humor makes conversations about intimate health and wellness more comfortable, against just 11 percent who said it makes things worse. But respondents were clear that jokes alone do not close the gap. Asked what actually draws them in when brands talk about women's intimate health, 42 percent picked women sharing their own real experiences, ahead of expert or doctor-backed information (30 percent), plainspoken language, and straightforward education. The brand built its "Let's Talk About It" initiative around that insight, pairing comedy with candid information, and it has taken the campaign to some unexpected stages, including a recent appearance at a conference dedicated to beaver conservation, where the double entendre became a doorway into a conversation two very different communities might otherwise never have shared.

Why Silence Can Cost You

Embarrassment is not just socially awkward; it has measurable health consequences, and independent research backs up the pattern. According to a survey by the British cancer charity The Eve Appeal, only half of women aged 26 to 35 could correctly label the vagina on an anatomical diagram, and nearly a third of young women said they had avoided seeing a doctor altogether because they were too embarrassed, with more than one in ten finding it very hard to discuss gynecological concerns with their GP at all. That matters because the topics women most want to normalize, according to the new survey, are the ones that can signal real medical issues: sexual health and wellness (53 percent), menopause and perimenopause (51 percent), menstruation and periods (48 percent), intimate hygiene and care (47 percent), vaginal odor (46 percent), bladder leakage (45 percent), and irritation or dryness (43 percent each). Difficulty saying the words can quietly become difficulty seeking help.

There is an honest caveat here: the new survey was commissioned by a brand that sells intimate-care products, so a grain of salt is warranted about its framing. But the numbers rhyme with what charities and clinicians have been reporting for years, and the generational twist is the part worth sitting with. As brand executive Krista Kiisk put it in a statement, there is a disconnect between believing these conversations should be normal and actually feeling comfortable having them, and that disconnect is widest among the youngest women surveyed. If humor, real stories, and plain language can narrow it, the payoff is not just less cringing at the dinner table. It is more women describing their symptoms accurately, asking their doctors direct questions, and getting care sooner, which is what intimate wellness was supposed to mean all along.

For more on this beat, see our sexual wellness coverage and our look at the Gen Z sex recession.