The NHS want to know what genitalia I have

I'm so sorry this happened to you, op. 💐

And all the woman needed to ask was what sex you were.

I'm sure a transperson can be mature enough and take responsibility for their own health, and just give the medical professional the facts they need to do their job, including disclosing this without being asked explicitly.

I think this is part of the problem the need to maintain the delusion that you can actually change sex if why the medical profession has come up with these silly phrase like chest feeding and so on.

And in case any one has forgotten, this need not to acknowledge that your birth sex never changes can have tragic consequences. There was a trans man who went to hospital complaining of pain, and based on what was said the nurse took actions based on thinking she was dealing with an obese man. In fact the trans man was pregnant and eventually had a still birth.

So even if the nurse failed in the initial assessment, what would possess anyone to continue to cover up their actual sex?

(Sorry OP I wasn't going to join in the general discussion, as your personal story is so shocking. Hope you are doing okay!)

But all they needed to ask was what the OP's sex was. All the rest was because they won't ask this simple, easy to understand, accessible, medically relevant question because they are politcally motivated. They put OP through this simply because they are politically captured not because having an STI test invloves more than buying a coffee.

And I thought your coffee remark was knowingly patronising and deliberately insensitive. You owe the OP an apology frankly.

OP: I am very sorry you have had unhappy experiences. I can understand why you found the phone call distressing. I hope your test results show nothing extra to worry about. Your second post explains things very clearly.

Do you feel up to giving feedback to the test providers? They need to know how the choice of words used by their call handlers can affect callers.

Knowledge of your experience, combined with advice from some of the comments on this thread, could enable them to improve things both for people phoning up for test kits, and for their staff. Get information from the internet about high-ups in the organisation, email them and write the script for them!

Very best wishes.

I'm pretty new to all these issues, it's actually been through this forum that I've started hearing and seeing a lot of this stuff, after the seeing stuff in the mainstream media that's piqued my interest (and pissed me off). I don't think I AM getting it, no, but I'm starting to see it's way, way way more complicated than my simplistic view here...

WAX

I don't think you're really getting it. Do you think that everything TRA's complain about is reasonable and necessary? When women complain about penises in their changing rooms and saunas, and they are the ones told they are violent transphobes, is that reasonable and necessary? When TRA's sue female beuticians because they refused to was their "lady penises" was that reasonable or necessary?

Yes hotdog. That comment IS the truly upsetting part of this incident.
🙄

FFS

But referring to pregnant people is fucking offensive to most women!
And that isn't what the official NHS comms say we should do - language is supposed to be used sensitively for the situation, such would be different in a maternity clinic (clue is in the name!) Than in a trans health clinic. Stupid middle managers wildly misunderstand what this means, however, to score points with their woke bosses.

Ask " Do you need a female or make test kit" its not difficult. No need to bring gender into it at all - gender is irrelevant here.

OP, I'm sorry you had to go through both those experiences, and I'm sorry for the victim blaming on here. Just more evidence that the radical trans movement doesnt give a shiny shit about women.

Why would that be necessary? We are all asked to disclose our medical history when receiving healthcare, and it's our responsibility to tell the clinician what they need to know. If I drank a bottle of vodka a day for 10 years, then quit drinking and two months later the GP asked if I drink alcohol, it would be a bit remiss to just say "no..." And frankly, it would be my own fault if my treatment wasn't optimal because of it... Kind of cutting your nose off to spite your face.

I'd be very interested to hear from a transperson if they'd genuine feel discriminated against because of that question!

Are you sure? I wouldn't be. If they are a TRA it would be a great excuse to make a massive fuss and throw around how transphobic it is that they were expected to disclose their own history.

It's like colonialism all over again. Steal my stuff. Mark it as yours. Make everyone confused every time I say it is mine and blame me for their confusion.

This nhs worker is confused and needs clarification because of the agenda pushed on her, not by op clarifying that the word female means exactly what it says in the tin.

Urgh infuriating. And after she was raped as well. Just infuriating.

What that man did was horrible, as this whole experience has been. I am so sorry💐

As for the pharmacist I slight sympathise because our language about sex -
man, woman, male, female - has been systematically destroyed so it no longer has any meaning. So the pharmacist was tangled up in the mess trying to find foolproof clarity.

I'm sure a transperson can be mature enough and take responsibility for their own health, and just give the medical professional the facts they need to do their job, including disclosing this without being asked explicitly.

No, because what about post surgery males with fake vaginas, or females with fake penises?

I’m not responsible for sending out kits so I can’t comment on that. However, I do see hundreds of sexual health clients face to face every week and have by now learnt to identify who has a penis and who has a vagina 🙂

Answer
No I don't have a gender
I'm an adult human female observed female at birth with female genitalia
Say it every fucking time some box ticking melt questions you until they fucking Get It

This is a crazy way to expect medical professionals to work. Pregnancy requires female biological characteristics.

He’s a scumbag.

hope you are ok. Even if you have to deal with this gender bullshit while you navigate the stupid system which lost its mind so the focus shifted from you and your needs to some fucking rinsed out rainbow.

be ok.

it’s the only way x

I remember when I has to order one of those kits, they sent me to a Web page to order it was so badly set up and it wasn't just for the kits it was also for gender dysphoria, at one poi t while wrestling with the site I inputted that I had genet dysphoria just to try and amakr the page work and the first call back I got was about that, despite the fact I earlier submitted I needed a test kit. Honestly it's a complete farce, and totally driven by the fact it's making a lot of American pharmaceuticals a lot of money (providing hormones etc). The people who quack about trans rights on twiter are basically just autistic people who've been led to believe their view of the world can be validated if only everyone else starts to believe in nonsense, and the drugs companies love it because they basically provide all of their custom.

Can't they say, we have Kit 1 for use with a penis and Kit 2 for use with a vagina. Are you requesting Kit 1 or 2? Wouldn't that work?

Although absolutely agree that just asking your sex should cover it...

But plumbers, electricians and fitters can happily use male and female connectors without confusion. What do they know that HCPs don't?

Then I don't understand this either. How does asking what gender they are now and what they were at birth become more reliable than asking if they actually have a penis or a vagina? Surely trans people will have put sufficient thought and reading into knowing what they've got after such a huge operation that took so long to get.

(And honestly, I will never be convinced that you always send out the right kit to men and women born and living as the same sex anyway.)

You can't operate a system of looking after 67m people and think you can frame a question that will be spot on for everybody. So go for the one that will be understood by the vast majority.
Penistone. Vagina. Tick a box.

It makes sense, but I can see that a possible problem with that approach is that a transgender person who has had surgery might answer that they have a penis or vagina and end up with an inappropriate kit.

If you try to identify those people by following up the genitals question with "Are you transgender?" then a good chunk of the population will not understand what that means.

So perhaps it's as well to gather as much data as possible from the person to eliminate any chance of confusion or misunderstandings.

But this doesn't make sense. If you can't trust anyone to talk accurately about their sex, why mess around asking what their gender is now and at birth if you want to know about their genitalia? Just get straight into it and ask do you have a penis or a vagina? It's a ton less confusing.