Unless someone is pulling an elaborate prank, the womb transplant survey isn't a hoax. Judge for yourself at www.surveymonkey.com/r/SPKJKTB and drive.google.com/open?id=1PQuMJAkGc7jex5Kgr9EEvlIqkSmsbBGg
I saw the screenshot of the survey go past on Twitter at the end of last week. Meeting all of the criteria (on a Wednesday), I got in touch via the email address. I wasn't expecting to get a reply, but I did. It seems that Imperial College's vetting process is as robust as the average Labour Constituency Party's. Anyway, the email included a patient information sheet with such delights as:
"... gain a greater understanding of the desire, and therefore need, to perform womb transplantation as part of gender reassignment surgery" - whether a desire should automatically be turned into a need is debatable.
"It also assesses feelings of your current options to acquire motherhood..." - because women's life experiences are just trophies to be collected?
"... a cyclical regime would be given instead, to enable the recipient to experience periods." - well, I suppose spending that 20% difference in pay on tampons would only add to the experience.
"Immunosuppressive medications would need to be taken as long as the graft was in place, to reduce the risk of the body rejecting the transplanted womb. These would continue through pregnancy." - because risking the health of a baby is a-okay when you're feeling fully validated?
"... after the recipient has completed her family, the recipient will be advised to have the womb removed to minimise (cancer) risks." - yes, this is effectively surrogacy without the continued need for an uppity woman.
"You have been invited to participate because you are a male to female (M2F) transgender woman. You therefore have Absolute Uterine Factor Infertility (AUFI), a condition which affects one in 500 women of childbearing age. This may be congenital, such as in M2F transgender women..." - Umm, no. I'm male. Males can't have AUFI because we're... umm... MALE! Oh, and the cute infographic which equates trans women with women who have CAIS and MRKH is really interphobic. That it also puts me on an equal standing with women who've had a hysterectomy due to cancer is just insulting to women.
On similar lines, the included paper "Uterine transplantation in transgender women" incorrectly states that the protected characteristic of "gender reassignment" means that trans women cannot be subject to discrimination. On this falsehood, the authors then proceed to state that should womb transplantation "become an established treatment option for women with AUFI, UK and EU legislation would make it legally impermissible to refuse to perform UTx in transgender women solely because of their gender identity". Note the common trick of slipping seamlessly from the protected characteristic "gender reassignment" to the undefined term "gender identity" with no shame whatsoever.
After wading through all the BS, I did what any self-respecting, activist trans woman would do. I signed the consent form and sent it back, again not expecting a reply. And then I got the link to the SurveyMonkey survey (seriously, what is it with Woke Bros and SurveyMonkey? Could it be the lack of internal scrutiny? Nah, must just be coincidence).
To be continued...