The Life Uncut podcast duo Brittany Hockley and Laura Byrne have been forced to take down an episode after they were accused of spreading “misinformation”.
Earlier this week, The Bachelor alumni were embroiled in controversy when they were accused of spreading medical misinformation in an episode on Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) — a rare and life-threatening illness caused by bacterial infection.
After being called out by fans and medical experts online, eventually the episode did get removed. Here’s the full story:
What Did Brittany Hockley and Laura Bryne discuss on the deleted Life Uncut episode?
In an episode, which went live earlier this month, Laura and Brittany spoke with US model Lauren Wasser, who lost both her legs and almost died of TSS in 2012.
In a snippet of the episode which was shared to the Life Uncut social media accounts, Lauren opened up about her journey with TSS, where she blamed chemicals in tampons for causing her TSS, adding that “thousands of women have died” while using period products “correctly”.
The current medical belief is that TSS can, in some cases, be caused by leaving tampons in for too long. Lauren, however, gave disproportionate blame to the correct use of sanitary products.
“All of the name-brand tampons or feminine hygiene products that we have today on the market are full of bleach, dioxin and chlorine,” Lauren said in the deleted snippet.
“Even if it says it’s 100 per cent cotton, [the tampon was] still sprayed with pesticides.”
The model then claimed that it takes a single toxin to get into your system for it to “start shutting down your organs,” adding that period products are “lethal” and “dangerous”.
“It’s my goal to make sure that not only is this information out there, but women have these conversations amongst each other. Because knowledge is key,” Lauren stated.
Fans and Dr Michael Mrozinski call out Life Uncut for “misinformation”
As the snippet circulated online, viewers began to slam the trio for spreading misinformation about TSS and its link to period products.
One popular TikToker, Dr Michael Mrozinski, who now uses the platform to debunk “bad health advice” after working in medicine for 15+ years, stitched the video and expressed his disappointment in the podcast hosts and Lauren.
“I’m actually disappointed in Life Uncut here,” the British-Australian doctor told his 430K followers.
“‘Cos I’ve got quite a few mutual friends of the show and the producer and they posted this video about Toxic Shock Syndrome on Instagram. It got huge backlash. They had to take the video down.
“But for some reason, they still feel it’s acceptable for a video with millions of views to be still up on TikTok. And I reached out and said ‘Look guys you should be taking it down. It’s misinformation. It’s dangerous.’ But the video is still up and here we are.”
Dr Michael empathised with Lauren’s experience, describing it as a “very sad story”, and agreed that tampons can bring on TSS in rare cases. He then provided a deeper and more professional explanation of TSS and its more common causes.
“Toxic Shock Syndrome is a form of sepsis in response to the toxins from usually staph and strep bacteria,” he continued.
“When you have a period, or particularly heavy periods and use a tampon, there is a higher risk of some of the toxins being reabsorbed so changing tampons regularly reduces that risk.”
He then debunked Lauren’s claim that period products had pesticides and chemicals, and added that these claims were “absolutely nonsense”.
“You can actually get Toxic Shock Syndrome from lots of other different causes,” Dr Michael pointed out.
“And it’s not caused by what’s in tampons — that is a dangerous message to send out.”
Life Uncut removed the episode and released a statement
After three days of calls for the episode and TikTok clip to be removed, the Life Uncut team took down the controversial podcast episode on Wednesday, May 22 — just two weeks after it was first released.
A statement shared on the podcast’s social media pages which admitted that a “medically incorrect” comment was made on the pod.
The statement then clarified which of Lauren’s comments was wrong, and informed their audience of the proper causes of TSS.
“Although it is well documented that tampons may contain chemicals and dioxins, these are not responsible for causing TSS. TSS results from toxins produced by bacteria,” read the statement.
“There is a wide misconception that TSS from tampon use is only a result of leaving a tampon in for too long.”
Life Uncut also repeated how Lauren’s experience was that she contracted TSS through correct use of a tampon which is why she is such a “fierce advocate for TSS awareness”.
However, the statement didn’t clarify that this was a rare case as medical experts like Mrozinski pointed out.
The podcast team finished the statement by saying the episode will return to listeners’ feeds once it has been edited to correct the error.
Fans commented on the post in support of the hosts’ decision to remove the episode, and also encouraged them to talk to more medical experts in the future.
“I’m so glad you addressed this. I left the episode feeling a bit frustrated that there wasn’t any clear conclusion, despite some strong opinions. Great for awareness, but as others have said, it’d be great to hear from a health professional on this topic,” commented one follower.
“Good on you ladies for always addressing errors, confusion or corrections promptly and head on,” wrote another.
However, others were still disappointed and claimed that the episode contained other medical inaccuracies that were not addressed.
“Lauren overstated the mortality rate of menstrual TSS, said there is no research on TSS, and claimed the tampon industry is not regulated by the FDA – this is all misinformation,” slammed one person.
The episode has not been uploaded in its edited form at the time of writing.
[Image credit: Life Uncut/TikTok]
