Sorry, I know the thread has moved on, but wanted to say to thanks to MsTiggywinkletoyou:
Your point about language to mirror the patient is excellent. So actually in gender clinics/when talking specifically about trans stuff, doctors might use convoluted terminology, but really shouldn't speak like that to the general public. The lexicon in medicine is important, but can be alienating. Doctors have a history of being very patronizing (especially towards women!), and the use of medical phrases instead of explaining concepts simply has been noted as one way doctors can keep patients at a distance. I think of it a bit like if you speak English, but the doctors only discuss what's going on in Spanish, and then translate a tiny bit of it back to English for you. You're left wondering what's going on, feeling excluded or talked about instead of spoken with. So I think there has been a move to use clearer language when speaking about health. HCPs ought to be encouraged to communicate in the everyday words most people will understand, or mirror back specific words to the patient (as long as everyone has ensured they're on the same page about what those words mean, because even a word like "sick" could have different meanings, some use it to mean generally feeling unwell, but for others it's vomiting-specific).
Language is so important for healthcare, public health campaigns, websites and information leaflets. It needs to be accessible and easy to understand for the the target audience. Simple, clear, and accurate.
What's happening to language for women's health unfortunately appears to be heading in directly the opposite way. It's getting confusing for everyone. It makes me really worried, actually. I don't understand how they can claim to connect effectively with women as a group if they use language like cervix-haver or menstruator. Honestly. How does that help the average woman? How does that communicate properly to women who don't speak English as their first language? How does that reach a woman who has never used the word menstruation to describe her period, or may have heard the word cervix twice at school but hasn't thought of it since?
We all know what "woman" means. I can't understand why anyone who thinks about female health has gone along with the notion that "woman" is now a taboo word.
I suspect it's very much about the desires of male-born transactivists, as has been pointed out on the thread. What's disappointing to me is that whoever is in charge seems to feel that ridiculous linguistic gymnastics around women's health is fabulously "inclusive," but speaking clearly about men's health remains most important: "well, cervix-haver is good, but when we talk about prostate cancer we need to make sure to address men. Otherwise men might get confused and their health could suffer."
Sexism has rarely been this obvious to me.