Male blood donors are asked “are you pregnant?”

I agree with a previous poster- it makes the healthcare staff look ridiculous and undermines confidence in them. You might say that this particular man was throwing his toys out of the pram and he should have just gone along with it. I disagree. I think far more people need to push back against each and every one of these silly things. If all men giving blood refused to say if they were pregnant and walked out if pressed, then the Blood Donation service would have the policy changed by the end of the week.

Actually i disagree.

He is giving his blood so that others can be treated in the best possible way.

If we aren't being transparent and honest about sex and making the point that it is essentia to know this as part of blood donation then actually that breaks trust in the system and that people will be treated properly.

Theres been a well documented case of someone being treated as male for kidney issues which put their life at risk.

There is a legitimate reason to make a protest against this insanity. Its not 'being dickish'.

btw if the issue is one form=everyone is asked that question, then he needs to get a life.

I think that’s an excellent thing.
I hope this will make more men uncomfortable.

When women say there is an issue with assuming transwomen are women we get shut down. Maybe they will listen when men aren’t happy with TMAM.

Id also like this to ask transwomen if they are pregnant. It might be a reminder for them that they cannot because they just can’t.

i so wish we were going towards adding transwomen and transmen and two new categories ans be done with the whole mascarade of TWAW and TMAM.

This is rather an ignominious end to a remarkable lifetime history of altruism and donation that I'd otherwise have expected SNBTS to recognise and honour.

For your assertions, in order:

• Is he?
• Does he?
• Plausibly your prerogative although you give no grounds for it beyond that you seem to disagree with him on one issue.
• You didn't perceive the MSM question as something that you did not wish to answer. You might have seen it as irrelevant but you opted for compliance. This man must have answered the MSM question many times over his history of blood donation. He obviously responded to it but, for whatever reasons, this time he refused to respond to a question to which he objects.

I got asked if I was pregnant before having an MRI once. I was visibly pregnant and the purpose of the MRI was to check the extent to which my placenta was growing outside my uterus. I said yes. We looked at each other for a few seconds and she moved onto the next question.

If this is the silly old man whos been all over social media this weekend, he obviously sees himself as some sort of warrior against gender ideology. I see him as a silly old berk. Last time I gave blood, there was a question about was I a man who had sex with men. I found myself quite able to tick 'no' without having a righteous hissy fit about it.

If they want to have one form, then they could just allow answers yes/no/NA, with a general instruction to put NA for questions irrelevant to your sex or age.

I donated this week in Scotland.

There were no separate questions for men and women today, although there was a pregnancy question.

I was also given a list to choose from as to how I saw myself. The same list as the recent government census.

Last time I looked everyone’s donation was a very pretty shade of red.

People can put down whatever they want so why is it even necessary? I’m buggered if I can see what the difference is between Scottish and English blood either and yet that is on there.

Should my blood be tartan?

@KittenKong exactly. "assigned" what a bloody stupid and deliberately inflammatory term.

Did you read the article? The staff response?

I've filled out loads of forms at medical appointments over the years that have asked questions that don't apply to me.

These documents are quickly stitched together in a Word document, photocopied, put in a pile and are handed out to all patients at reception. They're poorly formatted, have a few typos and are just a tool to get patients to answer the big important questions.

I don't think it's an issue particularly.

Women donate four times a year in Scotland anyway.

If I remember correctly, the forms always had the question on, it was just that there were general sections plus a section for women (about pregnancy etc) and a section for men (do you have sex with men etc). You just left blank the section that wasn't relevant — which is effectively what this man wanted to do.

the alternative is putting it on frontline workers to make decisions about who passes?

And that's the lunacy in action, isn't it?

Suddenly some people don't tell the truth even when their health, or the health of others, rely upon it. And everyone suddenly finds it difficult to say the obvious out loud. We can't be honest for fear of hurting someone's feelings - which is now approaching levels of a capital crime.

Instead of pandering to this one specific dysmorphia we should be treating it the same as all others, insisting the sufferers acknowledge reality and find their own way of dealing with that.

But no. Instead we manufacture a world that relies upon a fundamental lie being seen to be believed.

I recently filled in an online medical form.
There was a question for 'gender' as male or female. On choosing the latter, an extra 'could you be pregnant' question appeared.

That's an example of using 'gender' as a euphemism for sex which ends up being 'non inclusive'. Asking someone's sex (and surely everyone knows that on a medical form that means one's actual sex, and what that is) would be correctly inclusive of transmen who may otherwise miss the extra question.

There's no need for a 'gender' question ( except for issues specific to trans peoples health) - sex and preferred title/name does the job accurately and inclusively.

How was his sex assigned? Coin toss, one potato two potato, some kind of sorting hat?

Happens all the time now. A friend of mine, assigned male at birth and never thought of changing his mind about it, now 73 , has regular follow up scans for a previous complaint. What he refers to as ‘those poor girls’ ( because they are embarrassed to have to ask such a stupid question) have to ask him at every appointment ‘Mr Smith, are you pregnant? ‘.

because he is a nice man, he says he just smiles and says ‘not as far as I know.’ Then he goes and takes his regimental tie off and puts on the gown.

"Sex assigned at birth". That term will never stop annoying the hell out of me.

Well that's fine then.

I don't really understand about refusing to donate as a result of being asked a question. I did ask once when donating blood why the questionnaire was asking about gender not sex and asked the nurse about it. He told me about women only being called to donate three times a year as opposed to four and not being invited to donate platelets. I didn't really want to ask anymore about it as the nurse was so uncomfortable and clearly just wanted to say it was about making donors feel at ease. However, he did confirm that sex difference was important in blood donation.

It left me with more questions than answers to be honest, I hope a transman who is still menstruating wouldn't be called on more than three times a year to donate. I hope a transwoman who wanted to donate platelets wouldn't be denied the opportunity to do so. Maybe there's a chance for more in-depth discussion with the nurse when you're doing the finger prick etc before donating?

99.999999% sure this isn’t happening in Wales. (The medical director of the WBS knows the difference between men and women. ;))

Female blood can never be used in male patients. It can have fatal consequences. So they do ask and have to know the biological sex, however the individual presents. No assumptions are made by staff.

But if they don't have a box for "Sex AAB"

eProgresa software has this information and that is the one that SNBTS uses to manage donors and donations.

I can't be bothered to get exercised about this particular question, which would be equally silly to any 66 year old. Eighty year old women having medical treatment get asked whether they might be pregnant all the time, and they don't throw their toys out of the pram. You just tick "no", whether that's because you're old, or a child, or celibate, or lesbian or male, or whatever.

But if they don't have a box for "Sex AAB" (or however they want to put it) the it raises the question of how they decide what the appropriate haemoglobin cut-off is, and what the appropriate donation frequency is. Do non-binary people all get given the female parameters to be on the safe side? Do transmen get put on the male donation frequency pathway?

The cost would eventually roll on into more of the same. Like being polite and nodding along to TWAW because we all knew it was just one of those polite lies we all tell.

See where that got us? It got us here. To a time and place that the NHS, Blood Service and all sorts of biological science based organisations asks questions like "Dear Mr. 66 year old man, could you confirm you are not pregnant?" and then refuse his donation when he refused to give such a ludicrous question credence.

See, the paper based question is one thing. Staff reaction is another level of utter insanity altogether.

Our society is truly ill.

The issue though I suppose is that whilst there are loads of instances you can ridicule, the alternative is putting it on frontline workers to make decisions about who passes? I have to say I think sulking off from future blood donation over being asked this question doesn't seem so different from eg some high profile TW claiming that 'pussy hats' are transphobic.