Female mammogram technician

@Clangyleg , 'equal opportunity' is an appalling reason for them to give. Nor are women, or any patients, teaching aids. Despite what some may think.

Personally, the more emergency something is the less important it is who does it. Sudden vaginal haemorrhage? Absolutely anyone qualified. Screening mammogram? Must be female. Born female. No tw. At all. Ever. I'm not part of some hospital's 'equal opportunity' policy.

I had a mammogram done in another country. Terrible experience during the pandemic . Arrived to find a totally deserted basement and a man instead of the usual two women. No chaperone or warning before. I commented and was told it was because of “equal opportunities” I felt quite alarmed but went ahead, giving him the benefit of the doubt, but was handled very roughly, without any of the usual care. He pushed and pulled quite violently . I wrote to complain afterwards but no reply received.
I went two years later and felt I had to phone to check whether the radiographer would be male. I was told no, it would be women. When I arrived in the queue I chatted to the other women and another had had the same experience as me, and had been treated equally badly, so she had had to check before coming and was told he was no longer employed…there must have been many complaints. We do not want either men or men in dresses doing this particular procedure.

Mammogram technicians can only be female. Men weren't allowed to do it.

Even if

Probably wouldn’t object to a male surgeon, for some reason

It’s very rational for women to object to male surgeons. There was a very large study discussed here recently showing that women (but not men) have considerably worse outcomes with male surgeons. I think there might even have been two large studies with the same finding?

But I wouldn’t object to the male surgeon either, simply because there aren’t many female surgeons. It wouldn’t be seen as reasonable to deals with systemic misogyny in the medical profession by simply restricting the number of men who are trained for the high status role of a surgeon, even if it would save a lot of women’s lives. It wouldn’t be fair to deprive men of their status seeking opportunities.

Probably wouldn’t object to a male surgeon, for some reason, but all your other examples, yes I would unless it was a time-critical emergency. And it would be my absolute right to have that objection respected.

Yes and the EHRC guidance says a woman can refuse consent on the grounds that the health-care worker is male. It's irrelevant if they're 'trans'.

But who needs the stress of that shit?

XX for XX please.

If I had turned up for a mammogram and it was not a female as I would define a female ie female at birth then I would be very uncomfortable and I do not think I would go through with the mammogram.

The chance of your mammogram being done by a TG woman is tiny.

But the size of the risk doesn't matter. If there's any chance at all of being pressured into having a male-bodied technician, or simply finding that that's who is handling my breasts without any warning, then I would not feel safe.

Same as the discomfort I now feel going into women's toilets, because childhood sexual assault left me with a very strong fear of being trapped with a male-bodied person between me and the door. In the past it would have been unthinkable, whereas now it's a possibility.

When a male HCP performs an intimate procedure on a woman patient, a chaperone is needed, so the costs go up. I was referred to a breast surgeon for regular check ups in my 40s because of a family history of breast cancer. The surgeon was male and on every single occasion a female nurse sat in while he examined me. All fine, but if the surgeon had been female I'd have been perfectly happy to see her alone. (Not my request to have a chaperone - she was just there, and quite right too.)

There is a strong likelihood that some women patients needing non-emergency treatment would refuse to have a male HCP at all, either for religious reasons or because of previous experience of abuse, or just because they're not comfortable with it. And that is their right.

The answer to staff shortages in this area is to train more female HCPs.

Male person not nske person!

I think there is a difference between a mammogram and a breast exam. I’ve had both and haven’t had a problem with a male gp doing the exam but definitely want it to be only a woman doing the mammogram.
I have no problem with male gynaecologist and obstetricians but would not want a nske person to try to help with breastfeeding.
Merseyside nhs mammogram info says it will be a female person.

"female" is unambiguous. It means someone with XX chromosomes .

There is pressure in the UK to allow that as there is such a shortage of people.

That makes no sense whatsoever. If there’s a shortage of trained technicians, then train more women. If the shortage is due to pay or working conditions then improve them.

There is no plausible scenario in which opening up the job to men could solve staff shortages. Women are 50% of the population. We aren’t going to run out of women.

In fact if this were implemented it would only make shortages of staff even worse as many women would refuse a male technician, which would mean overburdening the female staff if NHS money were used to employ a man in that job.

Absolutely stupid idea, clearly targeted at dismantling women’s boundaries and not at solving an actual problem.

The chance of your mammogram being done by a TG woman is tiny. It wouldn’t even occur to me to think about that-the percentage of radiographers who practise mammography is already small. Interestingly, in some other countries, a mammogram can be done by either sex. There is pressure in the UK to allow that as there is such a shortage of people. Would people also object to a male breast surgeon? Or a male breast radiologist doing a scan? We have plenty of those. And male sonographers or gynaecologist doing intimate vaginal exams?

Here you are Clymene. FWR are never impressed with narcissist mysogynistic men:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3299191-A-new-member-of-the-Leftie-Misogynists-club

@KangarooKenny

"I assume you can buy a vagina too."

Fair point. I should have said someone with XY chromosomes

When I went for screening I was grumbling about not being able to keep my shirt on. Frankly, although not deliberately rude, I was being a bit of an arse. In the, vanishingly small, chance that any of the female staff read this post, I would like to apologise. I should have at the time. Sorry.

i had my routine screening recently. It shouldn’t really be a particularly heartwarming experience but it was so nice to be in that female space with all females and just feel safe and confident in it. It was full of that very female energy that I have known before in nhs wards, female changing rooms etc but that you now can’t relax into in the same way, in most contexts.

(I know men can get breast cancer but are treated separately as previously described.)

Not really. Hardly any transwomen have sexual reassignment surgery, and a good thing too, as the success rate is poor and the risk of complications, post-op infections etc is considerable. What they are left with is in no way comparable to a true vagina, which plays such an important part in birth. Surgeons and males appear fixated on its role in sex instead and see it as a receptacle, hence the push to rename it as a 'hole' when it's actually a tube. Incredibly disrespectful.

...or grow one.

It's very very likely it'll be a female person, but perhaps best not to ask in case this happens, as it did with someone who has an MBE for LGBT+ campaigning.

www.brightonandhovenews.org/2019/12/09/hospital-apologises-to-rape-victim-for-branding-her-request-for-same-sex-breast-screening-medic-as-transphobic/

Oh yes it was him @MrsOvertonsWindow! Well remembered.

I'm immensely grateful that so far this line has held. I've had a good few mammograms now and it's a very intimate procedure indeed. I stand there naked from the waist up and the radiographer takes hold of each breast in turn and moves it to get it in the right position before each X-ray. I feel quite comfortable with this because the radiographer has always been another woman. No need for a chaperone so also keeps NHS costs down.