Come off it Cancer Research UK

[Noviceoftheweek]

So now women aren't even mentioned in cervical screening awareness activity. To quote Cancer Research UK: "cervical screening (or the smear test) is relevant for everyone aged 25-64 with a cervix."

I despair, I really do.

It's not fake news - they're just not very consistent

I see that tweet provoked an interesting response.

yetanother this started with this - not fake news
twitter.com/CR_UK/status/1006857678767951872

yetanothertranswoman
It was on the news earlier. I forget if it was bbc or sky. Interviews with a woman objecting. I only saw the tale end and dd was around so I didn’t really watch it as I don’t really want her seeing all this stuff being played out.

I've seen it on Twitter.

Seems it was 'either to avoid offending trans people' or ' to include trans men' depending on the newspaper reporting it.

If there was evidence that uptake problems were occurring in population groups who have female biology but reject the term 'women' then this advertising change would make sense. Otherwise it's virtue signalling which risks being seen as irrelevant by the very groups it should be targeting.

I take it that transactivists would be very angry with the GP practice who increased their uptake rate by 11% in 2016 with lots of feminine style branding (eg lots and lots of pink). A campaign that worked particularly well in poorer demographics. Personally I don't like pink = female = feminine but am happy to put that on one side to save lives.

YANBU OP.

We are far down the rabbit hole. ‘Woman’ is now a dirty word, unsayable and offensive. Instead we have dehumanising nonsense like this that erases the words we use to describe ourselves.

All to appease trans activists and their witless desperate to please handmaidens. The latter who allow this rank misogyny to pass as they are fobbed off with lovely virtue signalling rubbish about inclusivity. Inclusivity that erases half the human race.

Which words will be next on the banned list I wonder? Once they’ve successfully got rid of woman?

I am not narrow minded, hysterical or against trans individuals. I do question however how much air time the whole issue has been given, which is surely way disproportionate to the number of unfortunate folk who happen to born in the wrong body. I see this as another step in encroaching in women’s spaces and it makes me worry.

I'm a practice nurse. All females between the relevant ages are sent out invitations for cervical screening from the nhs database. A leaflet goes out with this explaining what, why and how. The invitations are sent out to all those registered female so that means those who identify as male are still invited. We had a young adult receiving testosterone injections as part of gender reassignment therapy who was told he would need to attend for smears from age 25 as long as he still had his female organs. He was fine with that. At another practice there was also a similar patient who needed to attend despite identifying as male and having undergone some surgery.
Patients register with a NHS card which states their sex on it and this is how they are registered with the practice. We log their preferred title and gender on their registration but their sex remains as per their birth certificate.

Thank you Literary for both the explanation (which should calm concerns about people who are not educated enough to know they have a cervix) and the example of how to use pronouns respectfully without them sticking in your throat.

number of unfortunate folk who happen to born in the wrong body

You can't be born into the wrong body, you can be born into a body you are not comfortable with and causes you mental anguish.

There's no need for CR to change their wording, women was just fine.

You can't be born into the wrong body, you can be born into a body you are not comfortable with and causes you mental anguish.

Only in terms of sex though for some reason. You can’t be born the wrong race/ethnicity

(I don’t disagree with your point at all Tumble, just pointing out something else I’ve noticed.)

The idea that you can be born into the “wrong” body is preposterous. Each human is, first and foremost, a body. Our brain is nothing without the sensory input we receive from the whole of our bodies, each and every moment of every day.

We live in a world that encourages people to try to be so many things they are not and encourages them to believe in short cuts to self actualisation. This is the issue that needs addressing.

YABU

The screenings are for people with a cervix. If you don't have a cervix you don't need to attend.

They could just put "women need to attend" but that means that some groups who need to attend will be excluded - including trans FTM who dont identify as women and may assume that if they are transitioning they don't need to attend, even though they still have female anatomy - and other groups will be unnecessarily included - including trans MTF as well as women who do not have a cervix for other reasons such as hysterectomy or other cancer treatment.

This particular campaign is merely trying to highlight that regardless of how you identify this procedure is based on one question: Do you have a cervix? If the answer is yes, you need to be screened. If the answer is no then you do not.

Much ado about nothing IMO.

Yanbu. Glad you posted about this op or I wouldn't have noticed.

This particular campaign is merely trying to highlight that regardless of how you identify this procedure is based on one question: Do you have a cervix?

The problem is that the proportion of people who can answer ‘are you a woman?’ Correctly is far, far greater than the proportion who can answer ‘do you have a cervix.’

There are ways to make the text inclusive that do not involve removing the word woman. A cervix is a female organ. No man has a cervix. Some females will not have a cervix. Transmen who have had transitioning treatment will have all this covered and can be targeted more effectively with dedicated information specific to them, and they can also be mentioned in the copy of the CRUK as women who have had total hysterectomy including cervix removal can be targeted too.

But to simply remove the word woman is very counterproductive in communication terms.

I write and review informed consent forms and patient facing materials for clinical trials - this wouldnt get out the door.

YANBU op, the world has gone mad through trying to be progressive. I am not a person with a cervix, I am a woman with a cervix. This current fixation on pandering to a small minority of the population has the potention to be very damaging to women.

“Progressive” has lost its original positive connotation and come to imply tolerance of other people’s self delusions, even when they cause you harm.

@LiteraryDevil1
Patients register with a NHS card which states their sex on it and this is how they are registered with the practice. We log their preferred title and gender on their registration but their sex remains as per their birth certificate.

Thank you for this. As you can change your “sex” (meaning gender in this instance) on your birth certificate with a GRC, do you know if for NHS purposes someone is still registered under the original birth certificate or could details be updated with the new birth certificate sex?

You might not know! It’s bureaucracy and unusual I guess. Common sense would say that the birth sex would remain registered.