Man being asked if they're pregnant??

[CC2021]

Had the covid vaccine and as a female, was asked if there is any chance I'm pregnant. Fair enough question I thought. But a male friend was asked too and the nurse told him "you can't be too careful these days". Umm what??

AIBU to think it's ridiculous to ask a MAN if they're pregnant?

And was he really put out or offended by a nurse asking if he could be pregnant? Is it really such a terrible question to be asked by a hcp?

@DinosaurDiana would you really lose your PIN if you vaccinated someone that ticked "No" to the pregnancy question and later went on to have a miscarriage?

We need to have protocols that will pick up pregnancy in people whose records say they are male, without putting the onus on the healthcare practitioner to decide whether a person whose records say they are male is biologically female. This is the result.

Male isn’t a gender. It’s a sex.

It is ridiculous, but there was a case where a baby died because staff didn't realise the patient was a woman in labour.
I hate the fact that medical staff are having to cover themselves like this. The consequenses should be owned by the patient who demands the right to change their legal gender.

If the NHS asked for sex instead of "gender" on its forms and women pretending to be men told the truth, nurses wouldn’t be put in the position of having to ask this ridiculous question.

It's a really tricky thing to balance though, because what offends one group can offend another.

I used to have to ask all women before doing a health check if they were pregnant. It was important due to the equipment I was using. I asked once - one woman (I think she was about 55) got really offended about it because she assumed I was calling her fat. I could absolutely imagine a man, somewhere out there, being offended by being asked.

@TheTeaCosyofDoom

My partner (74, and definitely male) was asked if he might be pregnant by a very embarrassed nurse - "Sorry about this, we have to ask". I was with him because he has dementia and Parkinson's Disease and I am his carer. I said, "If he is, it's nowt to do with me". When it was my turn the nurse said, "You know what I'm going to ask, don't you?" I said, "I wish I was, I could make a few bob out of it at my age." Bonkers.

Interesting. My 70 yr old husband wasn't asked.

My sister works in maternity services for NHS she was nearly caught out until she noticed a very obvious bump.

The consequenses should be owned by the patient who demands the right to change their legal gender.

@Thelnebriati would there really be consequences for the nurse though? If a person ticks no to the pregnancy question on the form and it later turns out they were a trans man who wasn't asked but was in fact pregnant and then had a miscarriage (which may or may not be attributed to the vaccine), would the nurse really have any consequences? Horrifying if they would!

@Spindelina

Jackie NHS records contain your preferred gender, not your biological sex. We need to have protocols that will pick up pregnancy in people whose records say they are male, without putting the onus on the healthcare practitioner to decide whether a person whose records say they are male is biologically female. This is the result.

I thought medical records contain all your history. Is anything before you transition/re-gender yourself deleted now?

Medical records should state sex and this should not ever be changed regardless of how stroppy someone gets.

If people want gender then record that as being different from sex. But don't assume that all people believe in sexist homophobic gender nonsense.

@TrialOfStyle depends on who you're seeing I think. When we get a referral through, we don't have access to your whole medical history. I would only be told whatever gender you're down as currently. Gender would never be relevant to the treatment pathway in what I do so maybe that makes a difference to what we have access to. Unless your title is not specified, in which case it's down as NSP (though can't remember what the gender goes down as in that instance), I could potentially be none the wiser. It makes not a jot of difference to me what gender a person is in the context of my clinics, only difference it makes is ensuring I'm addressing a person how they wish.

Might as well ask it does no harm

My beer bellied partner would be full on offended if asked that 😂

[quote CC2021]@DinosaurDiana would you really lose your PIN if you vaccinated someone that ticked "No" to the pregnancy question and later went on to have a miscarriage?[/quote]
They aren’t ticking a box where I work, we ask the questions.

[quote CC2021]@DinosaurDiana would you really lose your PIN if you vaccinated someone that ticked "No" to the pregnancy question and later went on to have a miscarriage?[/quote]
I would also wonder if it was to cover people who misread the form. Poor literacy is a problem in the UK, apparently 16% of adults in the UK are considered to be 'functionally illiterate'.

literacytrust.org.uk/parents-and-families/adult-literacy/

I'm only really familiar with radiology (where this matters because of the radiation risk to a fetus) but for us, we don't have the whole medical record. We just have a referral containing the pertinent information (fell over, bony tenderness, ?fracture left ankle or whatever), with demographics to identify the patient and age, gender etc. And it is gender, not sex. I'd imagine that most healthcare practitioners similarly providing a specialist service (like vaccination) would be in the same boat.

@Spindelina

I'm only really familiar with radiology (where this matters because of the radiation risk to a fetus) but for us, we don't have the whole medical record. We just have a referral containing the pertinent information (fell over, bony tenderness, ?fracture left ankle or whatever), with demographics to identify the patient and age, gender etc. And it is gender, not sex. I'd imagine that most healthcare practitioners similarly providing a specialist service (like vaccination) would be in the same boat.

Sorry, that was aimed at Trial.

I would only be told whatever gender you're down as currently. Gender would never be relevant to the treatment pathway

Do you mean sex or gender when you say gender here?

[quote CC2021]@AIMD they have names and date of births on the form before they go through the questions (which have already been answered but they double check some). I can't remember if gender was a question tbh though, probably wasn't if they're asking pregnancy related questions.

Bizarrely we also had to tick to confirm we aren't TTC within the next 2 months despite RCOG guidance changing to say it's fine (but the nurse didn't ask me to verbally confirm that one).[/quote]
That is interesting - is that for men too then? We are actively TTC and I've been uncertain about what to do if/when I am called up, but I had assumed it would be ok for DP. We are having some difficulties and not getting any younger, so I'm very unwilling to stop for what would presumably be around 6 months taking into account both doses.

@KingscoteStaff

My 89 year old mother was also asked this question!

I'd love to know the reasoning behind this! It's ludicrous!.

I mean I don’t know. There was a thread on here only two days ago where a hospital had changed it language to use birth person rather than mother. So I guess asking a man if they could be pregnant lines up with this!

Unfortunately there have been cases of trans people not getting necessary medical treatment due to identifying by their chosen gender rather than biological sex. If things carry on as they are, this question will be asked of everyone, ‘just in case’.
It’s complete madness. Biological sex is so. so important.

NHS records should say "sex at birth" and "gender". Its important to know what someones sex is, it's also important to k know they're transitioning.

All this nastiness towards people who are at odd with their sex is just pathetic, they deserve to treated incorrectly because they've transitioned? Fuck me. So everyone is entitled to proper medical care, people who choose to harm themselves through recreational drugs, gang members, abusers, prisoners, people who start a fight they lose, people who drive drunk and injure themselves, everyone except someone who feels like their body is an incorrect representation of their self?

You need to get a grip if you're offended by a nurse asking if you could be pregnant. God knows how these people react when she then goes on to ask if you could have any STDs

Yes it's ridiculous, like this beyond parody "chestfeeding" NHS instruction in Brighton