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The NHS responded to my query about erasing women from their website

130 replies

pink85 · 27/05/2022 23:53

Been a lurker here for a while and saw the thread about the NHS erasing the word woman from biological women's cancers. This was the response email. What does everyone think? (also sorry if I do anything wrong, not posted here before but love the gender discussions which are always honest and fair as I believe in sex based reality and am on the side of JK)

Thank you for contacting the NHS Website service desk.
The NHS Website provides information for everyone. We aim to use language that is inclusive, respectful, and relevant to the people reading it.
We are working to improve content across the NHS website to make it clearer, easier to understand and more accessible. This includes improving the structure of the pages, writing in plain English, and improving the inclusivity of the language we use to ensure people get the correct clinical information.
As part of this work, we recently updated a number of our cancer topics. As a result of our user research, we made significant changes to how the information was originally structured.
We have not removed the word women from any of our cancer topics, we use it on the causes page when speaking about who is at risk. On topics like ovarian and cervical cancers, where we previously only mentioned "women" we now say "women, trans men, non-binary and intersex people with ovaries". This ensures anyone who could get these cancers can understand the information is relevant to them.
There are 1000s of pages of content on the website and doing this work takes time. Some cancers (such as ovarian, penile and anal cancer) have been updated already, whereas some still need to be updated (such as vulval and testicular cancer). This can lead to some differences in our content. We are working towards being clear and consistent across the website.
^You can find out more about our approach to inclusive content and writing about sex and gender here: service-manual.nhs.uk/content/inclusive-content/sex-gender-and-sexuality.^

(funny how the results on testicular cancer on the first page state men yet for cervical cancer it lists a whole load of people)

OP posts:
SpringBadger · 28/05/2022 00:30

It's not clear and it's not consistent.

Not clear - most of the population will have little-to-no idea what those terms mean.

Not consistent - why is "women" in the list at all, since in the context of gender ideology this can refer to someone with a penis? (Or is "with ovaries" meant to refer to the whole list, i.e. only those women with ovaries? Not clear.)

I find this insults everyone's intelligence and integrity, while confusing the most vulnerable. The trans and "intersex"* people supposedly being helped by this should know what screening they need, and if they're in any doubt, their doctors should tell them. Public health information shouldn't give edge cases equal billing with the main message.

It's also not inclusive, respectful or relevant to anyone who doesn't believe in gender ideology.

*Thought this term wasn't used anymore, except in LGBTQIA-etc?

Fifthtimelucky · 28/05/2022 00:20

The NHS response seems reasonable to me. I have no idea how they have chosen what order to do them in, but if I were the one deciding I would start with the most common cancers.

Boiledbeetle · 28/05/2022 00:07

You see if they were truly sincere in what they are doing they would have done ALL of the MENS pages first. Then done a press release to explain what they were doing and that they are doing the women's bits next. THEN they would have changed the women's.

But we all know that firstly it's not being done in a sincere manner and secondly no one is complaining about the men's pages being non inclusive.

LemonPalmTree · 28/05/2022 00:03

This is on the penile cancer page

Anyone with a penis can get penile cancer. This includes men, trans women, non-binary people and intersex people with a penis.

and this is on the vulval cancer page

Cancer of the vulva is a rare type of cancer that affects women.

they’ve told you right there in the email some have been changed and some are still waiting to be done.

nepeta · 27/05/2022 23:57

This means, then, that there is now no word for people of the female sex on those pages.

Woman' is clearly an abstract identity as it is part of the long list of other abstract identities. Not what needed to be done.

It's important for there to be terms which mean that someone is biologically male or biologically female.