What sex were you assigned at birth asks Covid Symptom Study

I agree Agnes that a clear simple factual question like the dance company asks is a better question politically. I agree with Necessary that it’s following a genderist political line to present biological sex as being a matter of arbitrary paperwork.

But the NHS wording is ironically perhaps more likely to get a biologically relevant answer because it asks about the paperwork, not about personal feelings.

A complicating factor is that genderism promotes self ID and also that we have the Gender Recognition Act. (You can legally change sex if you are granted a GRC).

So GRC holders can use their new legal sex for the sex question absolutely legitimately. Anyone who takes a genderist political stance, ie who believes in gender over sex, would logically self-ID for their answer for any questions on sex, in accordance with their belief.

So I can see why the NHS would use that clunky question about the birth registration to sidestep those factors and I think it’s probably the least worst option to use in this particular zeitgeist.

I filled in a survey earlier for a local (but internationally established) dance company. Surprisingly and refreshingly, their questions were:

1. What is your sex?

Which may have been a better way for the app to question. The big market research companies are yet to pick up on these questions as a standard (they still use gender), It would be a big step forward if they did! An acknowledgement that sex and gender are not the same thing.

Melroses - until Brexit the UK was part of a shared European Health System - which is why you could get an EHIC.

@Areyouactuallyseriousrightnow Broadly, I agree. It's not helpful or scientifically correct either to conflate sex and gender, or to imply that biological sex (whether XX, XY, XY with AIS or whatever) is not immutable.

However, given the current climate, in which saying this stuff leads to censure andTwitter pile-ons, I am at least pleased that this study is maintaining an accurate representation of both sex and gender - even if they use clunky, inaccurate language to do so.

Cant evern blame Stonewall, unless somehow before Brexit they were out and about in Europe.

There are world 'agreements' and european 'agreements' but they have not been agreed to by governments, iyswim. Whittle et friends.

That question makes my face twitch.

Perhaps I'm being irrational but I feel saying 'assigned' erases my biological sex reality. Sex isn't the same as gender. It's gender that might be assigned at birth, not sex. I say might because some of us were brought up without a gender.

Even "registered at birth" isn't particularly good

They could have just used Registered Sex.

This came up on another thread about how health stats are being recorded.

I registered with one of the Hospitals I attend for out patient treatment to receive info via email, so was asked to join some online service run by an external company,

It had all this incorrect data nonsense so I registered a complaint.

Initially they were very responsive and said it was part of a Europe wide based recommendation to standardise how information was collected. And that at that time (about a year ago) the NHS in England has received a directive saying they should use these phrases.

When I challenged it further I just stopped getting an replies. I later made a comment to my GP at the end of an appointment about how could Doctors be taken seriously is they talked about gender when they meant sex. And she just laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

Since then I have never taken part in any online survey because of this directive.

Cant evern blame Stonewall, unless somehow before Brexit they were out and about in Europe.

Just seems every system has been captured by the trans lobby and the people who should care dont, or are too intimidated to say or do anything.

I mostly lurk here and probably don't understand enough. This is no doubt a stupid question but instead of saying 'assigned', can't they just ask what biological sex?

I tried that and it was impossible to enter anything sensible if you are not a Believer in The Gender Identity Fairy in The Sky.

I did mention it to the chap in charge on Twitter, but nada....... they could have attached me and my entire family to the twins study data which it is connected to.

Honestly, as someone who has analysed survey data in the past, I suspect any data analysis will basically screen out anyone who doesn't answer male/male or female/female for the two questions.

If there's enough trans / non-binary participants, they might analyse them as a separate group, but I suspect the sample size will be very small.

Annoying that the menstrual cycle question is linked to gender. It sounds like this is because the survey originally asked about sex, then switched to gender, and now adds an extra question to disambiguate the two. It's going to add significant pain to the data processing to have these changes in the data definitions though

Even "registered at birth" isn't particularly good. What if that was actually wrong, due to an intersex condition, or if your sex wasn't registered at birth at all? They surely want to know what sex you actually are, but that wording suggests that somehow the paperwork is more important.

Anyway, who's actually checked their birth certificate? I'm far more certain of what my sex is than what my birth certificate may or may not say... I assume it's probably correct, but what if there was some clerical error like in the film Brazil? Am I consigned to incorrect medical treatment forever more?

If anyone is complaining, maybe suggest the NHS wording as being much clearer and unambiguous.

@Abhannmor

There needs to be a PI or CI (chief investigator) for the study, and it will have been through a Research Ethics Committee. It will therefore have pretty good governance and once you figure out who the PI or contact is it should be easy to make a complaint.

Assigned gives the notion that it is debatable or arbitrary. You have been assigned seat 4 on row 10. You have been assigned ..... female. Could you say you weren't assigned any or that it was hotly contested as all quota of male places had already been assigned for that day and they had run out?

Is there not an option for ‘I can’t remember, I was very young at the time’?