Hormone clinics ask the same question before they launch paid ads: what will Meta and Google allow? This guide summarizes what the official policy pages say about the topics that matter most to a clinic. We read each page directly in October 2026, and we point out where the policies leave questions open.
One point comes first. In the policy pages we reviewed, neither Meta nor Google names hormone therapy, HRT, BHRT, testosterone, or compounded medications. Both platforms write their rules by category, such as prescription drugs, health conditions, and health claims, and a given ad is judged on what the ad and its landing page promote. Treat this guide as a map of the rules most likely to apply, and confirm the details in your own ad account. Policies change, so the linked pages are the source of truth. This is general information and not legal advice.
The official pages behind this guide
- Meta: Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Health and Wellness, and Privacy Violations and Personal Attributes.
- Google: Prescription drug services, Restricted drug terms, Healthcare and medicines, Unapproved substances, and Health in personalized advertising.
- FTC: Health Products Compliance Guidance.
Meta's Drugs and Pharmaceuticals page lists its most recent dated change as February 2025, Health and Wellness lists July 2026, and Personal Attributes lists June 2024. The Google pages do not show a revision date.
Meta: what to plan around
Ad copy cannot assert or imply a health condition about the viewer
Meta's personal attributes policy says ads cannot assert or imply a person's attributes, including physical or mental health and medical conditions, and cannot imply that the advertiser knows about a viewer's medical situation. Meta's own examples treat copy that describes a service as acceptable and copy that asks the viewer about a condition as unacceptable. Applied to a hormone clinic, an ad that describes a consultation offer fits the pattern Meta allows, while an ad that opens with a question about the viewer's symptoms fits the pattern Meta prohibits. Write the ad about your service and leave the viewer's health out of it.
Prescription drug promotion has its own requirements
Meta's Drugs and Pharmaceuticals policy sets requirements for ads that promote prescription drugs. The policy says advertisers with an active LegitScript certification can promote prescription drugs if they meet its conditions, and it says online pharmacies and telehealth providers must hold an active LegitScript certification and then request authorization from Meta. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have a separate internal review path. Ads that promote prescription drugs need a disclaimer telling viewers to consult a licensed health professional or obtain a valid prescription. Targeting is limited to people 18 and older, and to the eligible countries where the advertiser is certified: the United States, Canada, or New Zealand.
The policy also says ads that educate about prescription drugs and ads that promote telehealth services in general do not need authorization. If your ads name a specific prescription medication, expect the prescription drug rules to apply. If they promote your clinic and its consultations, check how the platform classifies the ad before you increase spend.
Health and wellness rules cover claims and results
Meta's Health and Wellness policy prohibits clickbait in health ads, which includes sensational language, exaggerated claims, and promises of specific results within a set timeframe without qualifiers. Ads cannot claim to cure a list of named diseases. Cosmetic procedure and weight loss ads must target people 18 and older, and the policy sets rules for before-and-after images in those categories. The page does not discuss hormone therapy.
Google: what to plan around
Prescription drug services require certification
Google's prescription drug services policy covers promoting the online prescribing, dispensing, and sale of prescription drugs, with online pharmacies and telemedicine providers named as examples. Advertisers must be certified by Google to serve these ads, and some certifications require third-party accreditation first, with LegitScript, NABP, and G2 named as examples. Google applies the policy cautiously to landing pages that link to or refer to content that appears to facilitate online prescribing, dispensing, or sale of medicines. Agencies that apply for certification do so at the child account level and document their relationship with the advertiser. If your clinic offers telehealth visits or prescribes online, read this policy closely.
Restricted drug terms in the United States and Canada
For campaigns that target the United States or Canada, Google's restricted drug terms policy says advertisers can use prescription drug terms in ads and landing pages without certification, but certification is required to keyword-target those terms. Online pharmacies, telemedicine providers, and manufacturers need certification regardless. The policy points to a non-exhaustive list of prescription drugs and active ingredients. We could not confirm from the policy page whether specific hormone products appear on that list, so check it against the products your clinic offers.
Unapproved substances
Google's unapproved substances policy prohibits promoting hCG when it is marketed for weight loss or weight control or together with anabolic steroids, and it prohibits DHEA except in campaigns that target the United States. The policy also covers products that imply they are as effective as prescription drugs or controlled substances, plus a non-exhaustive list of unapproved pharmaceuticals and supplements. It does not name hormone therapy, testosterone, or HRT. If your clinic offers supplements or hormone-related products, read the policy and its list for the exact scope.
Health and personalized advertising
Google treats health as a sensitive interest category for personalized advertising. The category includes physical and mental health conditions, chronic conditions, sexual health, and invasive medical procedures such as injections. For advertisers in a sensitive category, the policy says advertiser-curated audiences cannot be used and lists Customer Match, your data segments, audience expansion, and lookalike segments as not supported. Predefined Google audiences, in-market segments, affinity, life events, and location targeting are listed as supported.
That matters for retargeting. Website visitor lists are kept under your data segments in Google Ads, so confirm with Google how the restriction applies before you build a retargeting plan. The policy does not mention hormone therapy, so whether a clinic's ads fall inside the category depends on what the ad and landing page promote.
The FTC applies to your marketing on any platform
The FTC's Health Products Compliance Guidance says advertisers need a reasonable basis for health claims, and for health benefit or safety claims that basis is competent and reliable scientific evidence. The guidance also says an honest testimonial is not enough on its own, that a note saying results are not typical does not fix a testimonial that reports unusually strong results, and that before-and-after photos can communicate claims that need support. For a clinic, the practical takeaway is to keep outcome and safety claims out of ads, landing pages, and social posts unless your providers and counsel can support the exact wording.
What the policies leave open
The published pages do not answer several practical questions:
- Whether an ad for a clinic's hormone consultations is treated as promoting a prescription drug.
- Which hormone products appear on Google's list of prescription drug terms.
- How ad reviewers treat a landing page that mentions specific medications.
To get answers, submit ads with careful copy and read any disapproval reason, contact platform support through your ad account, ask each platform about certification options that apply to your clinic, and ask LegitScript about certification where it is relevant. Have counsel review your approach. We cover the LegitScript side in this guide to LegitScript and paid ads.
A pre-launch checklist
- Ad copy describes the service and does not address the viewer's health conditions or symptoms.
- No promises of specific results or timeframes, and no cure claims.
- Landing pages match the ad, and any clinical wording has been reviewed by a provider and by counsel.
- Testimonials follow FTC guidance, with typical results disclosed where relevant.
- You know whether your ads name specific prescription medications, and you have checked the platform's prescription drug rules for those ads.
- If you offer telehealth or online prescribing, you have read Google's prescription drug services policy and Meta's requirements for telehealth providers.
- Retargeting plans have been checked against Google's health personalization rules.
- Targeting is limited to adults and to the locations where you are licensed to practice.
- Someone on your team owns rechecking the policy pages before each new campaign.
For how we approach campaigns for these clinics, see our hormone clinic marketing page, and for a broader walkthrough of patient acquisition, read How to Market a BHRT Clinic.
This guide summarizes publicly available policy pages as of October 2026. It is general information and not legal or medical advice.