NHS response to questions ref gender

[ginyogarepeat]

I emailed the NHS a few days ago in response to the link posted here re BMI calculator and question "gender at birth". Response is below - it's a start!

Well done. I happened to use that calculator yesterday and was inwardly screaming at their phraseology. Still can't believe the NHS doesn't understand the difference and relevance of difference between sex and gender. It's unbelievable.

I still don't understand the bit at the bottom re kid's BMI being gender specific...half this crap doesn't meet basic logic tests

Oh, and i forgot to say...thank you very much for being so much more action oriented than I was about this

Better, except for that 'gender specific'. Clearer wording might be 'BMI centiles are different for boys and girls'.

DH sometimes has to write NHS-compatible software and winces every time the guidelines force him to put in 'gender' questions.

Sometimes, for extra fun, they put in both sex and gender fields, and no one in real life knows what the results mean.

Here is that first link,
https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/gender-or-sex/

'This pattern explains how to ask users about gender or sex.
When to use this pattern
You should only ask users about gender or sex if you genuinely can’t deliver your service without this information.
If you do need to ask, use ‘sex’ when you need biological data (for example, if you’re providing a medical service). In all other cases, use ‘gender’.'

Well, good they should only ask for gender or sex when it's genuinely needed, good that they should use 'sex' when they need biological data. But bad to use gender in all other cases - apparently, from the bmi rewording they thought they should use 'gender' when referring to something reliant on biological data, which is daft.

I know....still annoyed at the final paragraph. Hopefully it's causing some thought!

But why are we so squeamish about sex? The Brontë sisters were happy to use it correctly nearly 200 years ago.

I still don't understand the bit at the bottom re kid's BMI being gender specific

Surely they mean sex specific?

OP they've updated the website to SEX already. Well done!!

Well done for doing that!

There is a good comment attached to the 'patterns' page you linked to github.com/alphagov/govuk-design-system-backlog/issues/69 questioning the direction:

"If you do need to ask, use ‘sex’ when you need biological data (for example, if you’re providing a medical service). In all other cases, use ‘gender’."

The commenter points out that sex is in the EA2010 and gender is not. They say " I think the default should be to ask for 'sex' and it's not at all clear under what circumstances anyone would be asked for their gender. If it is information for an equality impact assessment that is being sought, then it has to be 'sex' that is asked for."