Men can get Ovarian Cancer !

[dottiedodah]

I mean WTAF? (Source Telegraph) Ovarian Cancer Action has actually stated this.Would be bad enough generally ,but I am undergoing Treatment for this ATM, and just think it sounds ludicrous .Have been in touch with them before now and they seemed quite helpful .Feel a bit affronted ! AIBU they can say what they think,YANBU They should stick to the facts and not upset people already ill?

Even if this is addressing a small minority of patients, using language which encourages people to seek treatment and to discuss accommodations with their treating team is important in making sure that they access the care and treatment that they need.

If necessary, use additive language.

Solely using language which is only suited to a small minority and ignores, excludes and alienates the vast majority of the people who need to hear the message is very bad communication.

Because, as one of the Rules of Misogyny states, "Men are what they say they are. Women are what men say they are."

Or, men are humans. Women are a collection of parts and services for men's use.

https://ihra.org.au/16601/intersex-numbers/

Outwardly looking men who have ovaries only account for an tiny proportion of those who fall in the intesex category. So it's 1 in 100,000 men with ovaries.

Why not either

• Have a campaign directed purely at the trans community?
• Women get invited along for smears by invite every few years, why can trans men not receive public health information by mail? trans women receiving information about testicular and prostrate cancers in the same manor.
• Or the poster could just target ovarian cancer without mentioning sex/gender…. Or ‘people’ with ovaries…. it could just say

‘ovarian cancer - signs and symptoms’ … no need to point out women get it… I think most people with a brain cell will know who the campaign is aimed at…. Trans men will remember they were born with ovaries…. They’re not thick! ‘male only’ cancers saying similar… I hope we don’t live in a society where men aren’t sure if they have ovaries and women aren’t sure if they have testicles!! Hopefully school covers these things now… gone are the days when girls start their periods and have absolutely no idea what’s happening to them (I hope). I remember years back seeing an article with the headline ‘man gives birth’… I was fascinated thinking that somehow a man had been implanted with an embryo and ‘grown’ it somewhere… thinking wow… how could a man carry a baby and where?!?….. was bitterly disappointed to read it was a trans male that had kept all their female reproductive organs in tact… found the article headline very misleading and tacky!

Fantastic in theory.

I'd ask though how does a person in denial of their biological sex ever find out the names of all their internal organs?

Bearing in mind that many women who are not in denial of their sex don't even know what a cervix is.

We can't see it. We rarely refer to it. And nobody is allowed to point out which type of human has it.

That's not even 'men with ovaries' that's 'men with some ovarian tissue'

That’s pretty much what they did say.
they said ‘anyone with ovaries, regardless of gender identity, can get ovarian cancer.

it’s just people like OP and stupid media who twisted that.

Also, HAVING a cancer that only affects women is surely more "confronting to your identity" than having to sit in a certain area of the hospital! Having doctors discussing your ovaries, having scans of them, possibly surgery on them, taking drugs for ovarian cancer will all be confronting to someone who thinks they're a man. Reality has a way of doing that.

In any case, if you've ever been to a gynaecologist you'll know there are plenty of men there supporting their wives/partners/friends/relatives.

@mindutopia - I’m wondering if intersex ‘men’ would even know they’re intersex… might not even know they have ovaries unless at some point in their life they have a CT scan…
Ive heard of intersex women not knowing until they never start having periods and then when delving deeper it’s discovered they have testicles which have grown inside them and no womb/ovaries. But men wouldn’t experience the same identifiable issue. Unless at puberty they develop breasts and hips of course

It’s just ludicrous and pandering to a tiny minority.
On a related note, I see that one breast cancer charity actively avoids the use of the word ‘woman’ in their content. I appreciate that men can get breast cancer but it’s extremely rare. Breast cancer is predominantly a cancer that affects women. I have had it myself and I find it deeply disturbing that as a woman I am rarely mentioned.

Exactly. So we're lying to everyone that there's a category of men that these women can be a part of. Then we have to lie again to suggest that ovarian cancer doesn't just affect women. It's lie on top of lie. No, enough. Respect for material reality needs to be the baseline.

How does anyone know whether they have ovaries or not?

Eh?

Im assuming you mean intersex? Well they wouldn’t know… but no amount of wording would change that!

Their campaign tag is "can men get ovarian cancer?" And they answer that with a line about "anyone with ovaries, regardless of gender identity", can get it. So they are saying that the answer to their question is yes. Men with ovaries can get ovarian cancer.

At the end of the day the campaign should just refer to ovarian cancer - signs and symptoms….

it can’t and shouldn’t say ‘oh unless you’ve had a total hysterectomy and no longer have ovaries’
or unless you have a medical condition meaning you are female but born without ovaries or are male but born with ovaries, or are a trans man….

Goodness…. We’ve become a hand holding society where everyone is so easily offended

The point is that erasing the word woman causes confusion and is also offensive to most women. Cancer charities should not be causing confusion about who can get certain types of cancer.

And it's always the word woman that's deemed offensive isn't it. Ever seen an advertising campaign suggesting women should get their prostate checked?

The problem is people being offended by the word women to describe women. We need to speak up against the erasure of the word we use to describe ourselves.

No trans identified female doesn't know she/he/they have ovaries. They're well aware of the fact that, unless they've had them removed, they have the exact same medical possibilities as every other female on the planet. Possibly higher chance actually, depending on what cross sex hormones and different drugs do to their physiology. I'm no expert but I can't imagine testosterone in larger doses than the female body can produce naturally comes without some side effects.

It's up to these trans identified females to look after themselves. It's not up to the rest of us to muddle our language into a muddy puddle because reality isn't something these individuals can handle, whatever the reason.

I would hope, really really hope, that whatever medical team is looking after these individuals are genuinely looking after them. If not, that's medical malpractice. I'd suggest that fucking around with 51% of the populations access to simple and understandable healthcare is ALSO medical malpractice.

So why didn't they use the actual words to describe the people it's relevant to?

Do you think someone with a language barrier or who requires assistance with reading and comprehension will understand the soup used in place of specific words for the female sex aka women?

I know, right? Imagine if they'd just said women?

They would know at the point when their parents notice that their baby boy isn't peeing out of his penis because it isn't a penis.

In fact, they'd know at the point where a doctor examines the baby boy's testicles and realises that they aren't testicles but a fused labia.

DSDs of females and males don't tend to be interchangeable. It's perfectly possible (but v rare) for a condition that leads to lack of testosterone to result in genitals that look female externally but internal testicles. Because male genitals are more "out there", it's pretty obvious after relatively cursory inspection, that baby girls with severe CAH aren't actually boys.

Ovo-testes conditions are vanishingly rare.

The more head lines like this the better tbh as it highlights the absurdity of it.

The car park attendant ( retired police officer) who I chat with in the mornings was huffing about it the other day. 😁

It’s strange isn’t it, how when it comes to female physiology we have to be inclusive to the small minority of women who can’t accept they’re women. Yet simply google male specific conditions and it’s only men that are mentioned. Why does the medical community not feel the need to push prostate exams for men and trans women for example?

Men can get Ovarian Cancer

This is like those adverts advising “anyone with a cervix” to get screened. It’s worse than stupid. It confuses a lot of people and probably deters more from screening than it attracts.

Tough luck on anyone who’s not fluent in English, or hasn’t heard of transgenderism, or just doesn’t know all the vocabulary for internal organs.

At the end of the day the campaign should just refer to ovarian cancer - signs and symptoms….

And who specifically can get signs of ovarian cancer? Because in this generation yes we all know who you’re referring to. But eradicate the specifics enough and future generations won’t know that ovaries are specifically of one sex.

Goodness…. We’ve become a hand holding society where everyone is so easily offended

I mean yes, this is why in recent years simple, basic medical language has been changed or omitted to save the feelings of people with a belief system.