Trans rights supporters -can we please unite on the cervical cancer issue

I agree the percentage of breast cancer is low in men, but when they take hrt for a very long time the impact on the breast tissue they retain is a health risk.

Thankfully, most men who transition now do not take hrt for a long period of time, and prefer to go down a surgical route to 'feminise' themselves. Basically, they get breast implants and have body hair removed permanently or moved to the scalp.

Some also go for voice box shaving and a reduction of the brow - this is minimal because of the risks involved and isn't always satisfactory.

we haven't forgotten clause 28

Me neither, opposing this was the first time I joined in political protest. I am hetrosexual; it was appalling, cruel and unjust.

Placemats, thank you.

It’s my understanding that the majority of transmen don’t have any kind of ‘lower surgery’ (and frankly, it sounds both brutal and quite unsatisfactory so I can understand why) but I am an outsider.

The fact that transfolk need really quite bespoke care for the majority of their lives is as good a reason as any as not lump us all in as ‘cervix-havers’.

As I keep saying, this attempt at ‘inclusion’ by CRUK seems fraught with the potential of a negative impact on everyone!

(The percentages of men with breast cancer are very low though, not high enough to indicate universal screening will be suffiently cost effective. I only know this because I have spent 24 hours obsessing over it, having just discovered my late mother had BRACA2, which unlike BRACA1 can be inherited by boys)

internal reproductive organs

One would hope the internal organs are retained! Sorry!

current threads:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3277806-Cancer-Research-anyone-with-a-cervix?watched=1&msgid=78732033#78732033

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3280385-Rachel-Johnson-gender-critical

foxy

Oh i am so sorry

My reading skills leave a lot to be desired today and i see you were talking in part to the OP already

Honest mistake on my part

Lass, Sorry, yes, I appreciated that was why you were saying what you did.

I was just arguing that sometimes transhobia exists, but if you see it when someone excludes a space between words then you are looking too hard and will find it everywhere.

Which makes any sensible discussion well nigh impossible.

most transwomen are usually recorded as having had a hysterectomy when they transition so I am told (so they don't get sent for screening )
most transmen have hysterectomys

I think you are told wrong. Trans gender health is very poor globally. This is an acknowledged fact. All trans women will retain the prostate, but the best way to examine it is via digital insertion via the anus and not the inversion. There have been recorded cases of transwomen dying from prostate cancer. What is worrying is that breast cancer is not exclusive to women. Men can get it too. Most transmen retain their internal organs but continue to use testosterone. Even with a radical hysterectomy, Transmen are not exempt from any women's reproductive cancer as they retain the pelvic epithelial lining that is biologically female. And don't get me started on bladder cancer which must include a gynaecologist and an urologist if natal born female. Natal born men have to see an urologist only.

foxy

Haven't read past your post yet so i dont know if any comments have been made

I am assuming you are using the royal 'you' as I haven't attacked anyone and i think the OP was just interested in opinions over how it should be phrased

Obviously if you are not fussed either way then thats ok, there have been a fair few opinions already

Administrative management of cervical cancer smears is done by a central department in England.

GPs have to manually remove a woman from the records in order to cease the letters inviting a woman for a smear test.

I am a transwoman and find nothing impolite about it. Anyone who insists on spaces for political correctness reasons has another space between the ears

I was asking because another poster is hinting at transphobia on this thread yet is using terms which, I had understood, were considered to be derogatory.

Also, Cancer Research UK is an absolute giant of a cancer charity, and where it leads, others will follow.

Yet another reason to request to view their impact assessment.

A few years ago the main charities joined together to produce a guide specifically for younger women diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. It was produced in recognition that there were additional needs of this group of women and that the disease was associated primarily with women who were older / post-monopausal.

It won an award at the BMA and was very much led by women who had been diagnosed.

link here:
eveappeal.org.uk/gynaecological-cancers/ovarian-cancer/younger-womens-guide/

I missed out on 4 years of yearly mammograms because the hospital clinic that referred me and the GP held different postal addresses for me.

With less and less people able to buy houses and more and more trapped in unstable cycles of private rent (6 and 12 month contracts) it’s not unreasonable to think a lot of folk fall through communication gaps.

I am a transwoman and find nothing impolite about it. Anyone who insists on spaces for political correctness reasons has another space between the ears.

This is about health and results, it needs to say women so people it is targeting

Then if needed a sensitive trans-focused advertising campaign highlighting the bio-specific cancers they should ensure they are checked for despite transition.

most transwomen are usually recorded....

You use "transwomen" and "transmen". I thought the polite and preferred usage was trans women and trans men.

we haven't forgotten clause 28

Neither have I. Possibly because I still have clipping of the letter I had published in The Scotsman newspaper campaigning against it. A real letter with my real and fairly unusual name and a reference to the city I live in.

Reading you posts again Lass I think I misunderstood your point.

Sorry, I'm a bit passionate about this and I think I reacted too quickly.

I need to calm the fuck down.

When I was at school the girls above me in sixth form used to talk about getting their first invitation letter from the doctor to come for their first smear test; us younger girls were both terrified and excited at the thought of getting ours, come our 18th birthday. It was a right of passage!

Then they went and bloody changed the age to 21 I think, then 25. Gutted.

I still get letters, so I assume you still get your first once you reach the required age?

& to be clear, they will resist this not because they are 'anti-trans' but because they understand how bloody important it is to talk about women's gyny cancer!

foxyliz, I would hope some trans people would put lives and what is right over name calling any day.

This is not a trans v Mumsnet argument. It is saving lives.

Hopefully no decent person would play victim politics with that at stake.

Placemats, seems like you and your friend are exercising your rights to make decisions based on informed consent, which is the ideal for all, I reckon!

I hope we can get to a place where transfolk feel able to attend biologically indicated screening knowing they will be treated with dignity and respect. These appointments can be horrific enough without the additional labour of explanation/fear of being outed.

Perhaps occasional clinics exclusively for the use of trans people would be something to aim for? Ie, a day of cervical screening appointments just for transmen/ a day of prostate screening appointments just for transwomen? With staff who have special training in understanding dysphoria?

While my passion on this subject comes from my experience as a woman, and my desire to keep single sex provision in place for women, that doesn’t mean I don’t also wish for the best possible outcome for transfolk.

In this particular instance, blurring meanings and not acknowledging our differences has the potential to make everyone less safe and more miserable, in the long term.

*But doesn't the very fact you are asking tell you something Lass?

Er no.*

That didn't translate as intended. Apologies.

I simply meant that if we have to ask, perhaps there wasn't as much publicity around.

Pratchet
Those who have been affected by these gyny cancers will resist this.

They shouldn't have to because they already have more than enough to deal with, but many spend a great deal of precious energy trying to improve things for those other women (& their families) who will inevitably follow them.
I know a number of women, GPs and charities who have been persistantly trying to have a small amount of information printed onto smear test letters, advising women that a smear test does not identify Ovarian Cancer. They have also tried to include mention of the common symtoms. Only 1 in 4 women in the UK (I think) can identify that bloating is the most common symptom.

This is still an ongoing attempt to lobby the NHS in order to possibly save lives though earlier diagnosis.

How do women usually find out about smear tests?

The majority of women will receive reminders by post, but you have to be registered with a gp and they would have to have an up to date address.

That's why these campaigns are important, they try to reach the people who aren't in the system.