NHS Blood donating form saying 'gender' not 'sex'

[VicSynix]

I've been a regular blood donor for over 30 years, but recently (since my consciouness was raised by the evil women of Mumsnet) I've become irritated by the fact that the donor form says 'gender' not 'sex'. Surely the NHS, of all places, should recognise how the importance of recording your actual biological sex, not your gender?

I've been tempted to cross it out on the form, and replace it with 'sex', but as I don't want to needlessly antagonise anyone who's about to stick big needles in me, I've instead sent a message via the Blood Doning website asking why they do this.

If there are any other blood donors out there who are also irritated about this, perhaps they could also ask what's going on.

Are there any other instances of the NHS saying 'gender' when they mean 'sex'?

good for you - really important

This is actually really important as there is a known rare adverse reaction if a man is given a blood donation from a woman who has ever been pregnant. I can't find the original article I read, but this link refers to the risk.

www.blood.co.uk/why-give-blood/blood-types/ab-negative-blood-type/

That is bloody dangerous

As far as I'm aware, they do this initial haemoglobin test in these wee pots of coloured liquid. Blue and green colour - and that colour distinction is for men and women. Reckon that will be affected. (If the 'sink' test isn't clear, they need to test with the machine for a definitive answer.)

socksknitter that's really interesting - I thought there was something like that but wasn't sure. Which is why I can't understand why they're saying 'gender'.

milkgoatee I'm giving blood tomorrow so will look out for the different coloured liquid.

Blood donation goes by self-id, not sex.

Surely blood is tested to see if it's rhesus negative or positive? It's not any more dangerous for a man to receive the wrong blood type from a one pregnant women than it is for anyone else? I do agree that the form should ask about sex not gender though, if it's biologically important that they know.

Self-ID really doesn't work for donating blood — I know a transman who can't donate, because by ticking the "male" box, they need the male haemoglobin levels. The levels would be fine for a female donor though!

It could also be dangerous for transmen if they're called to donate every three months rather than four (having said that, its three months for everybody in Scotland so might not be that big an issue).

All blood test/lab forms have been changed to gender.
Which is a potential problem for some normal range values.

There's a question on the form (or used to be at any rate)- are you a man who has in the last twelve months had sex with another man? If that man is identifying as a woman, how do they answer that?

^Male sexual partners of transgender women would not fall under the men who have
sex with men deferral policy in their assessment^

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/male_partners_of_transgender_wom

Additionally re haemoglobin levels

"Haemaglobin levels are set for
both males and females; there is a legal requirement that these must be met before a
donation can be given. Donors who identify themselves as male will be assessed
using the male haemoglobin levels and similarly donors identifying as female must
have sufficiently high haemaglobin levels to meet the female levels"

Are there any other instances of the NHS saying 'gender' when they mean 'sex'?

I saw this on a hospital website regarding single sex wards

www.hey.nhs.uk/about-us/corporate-documents/emsa/

It starts talking about single sex, but then moved on to gender

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is able to confirm that mixed sex accommodation has been virtually eliminated in all of its hospitals.

The room where your bed is will only have patients of the same gender as you, and;
Your toilet and bathroom will be just for your gender, and will be close to your bed area

It feels deliberate

Male sexual partners of transgender women would not fall under the men who have sex with men deferral policy in their assessment

But why not?

I've now found the articles which alerted me to this rare risk. In the order in which I read them they are:

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/trans-canadian-blood-services-1.4851296

blood.ca/en/blood/am-i-eligible/trans-individuals

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfusion-related_acute_lung_injury

It's a bit like detective work. Read one thing and before you know it you're far down the rabbit hole.

But why not

Because TWAW obvs...

Are there any other instances of the NHS saying 'gender' when they mean 'sex'?

You might find these two articles interesting.

Sex, Gender & the NHS Part 1: The “Single-Sex Hospital Wards” that have always been a lie
Sex, Gender & the NHS Part 2: Your Medical Record and your Ladybrain

Up until right just now I thought that gender was the preferred term !! I used to correct my children e.g. when they referred to someone's " sex" as being girl/boy or man/woman. Something in my education ( I am 67 ) told me that the correct term was gender. I am confused.

Are there any other instances of the NHS saying 'gender' when they mean 'sex'?

Completely different topic to blood donation, but the form I had to fill in to be referred to my local autism team asked for my gender rather than sex. I know it seems like a minor thing but I was (and not only for pedantic reasons) enraged by it. It made me furious because of the issues in regards to the disturbing numbers of autistic children identifying as trans.
I couldn't let it go, so I crossed out the word gender, replaced it with sex and at the bottom of the page included an explanation why. Two reasons it matters, a) you would think the NHS would understand the difference between the two and understand the need to collect data on the basis of actual biological sex. B) Autism in girls is hugely under-diagnosed. Letting people fill in forms about their autism diagnosis and self identifying as a girl/woman could skew those figures, without more girls actually being diagnosed with autism.

I'm also a blood donor and find it a bit irritating too because gender is how one identifies whereas sex is a biological given. When donating blood I feel that recording biological sex is more appropriate because it's blood donations / medical / science! The wee test tubes are for measuring haemoglobin levels which differ for male and female sex. The frequency of donating is also different for male and female sex and I think that has something to do with iron levels although I'm not certain.
Sometimes there's an imp in me which when confronted with 'sex' on a form really wants to write 'yes please'!

Recently went to a sexual health clinic and although they did as for sex, they also had a box that asked if my gender identity matched the gender I was assigned at birth. I scribbled in that box - "gender is a social construct, sex is assigned at birth"

My nurse loved it! We had a good old chat at the ridiculousness of the NHS ignoring physical realities of patients. Plenty of people in the NHS see the issues, but are worried for their jobs if they speak up. It's insane.

Observed not assigned! Doh.

Why say either?

I recently had to fill in a form at my local sexual health clinic which asked for gender and not sex.
Surely what contraception they give you is wholly dependent on what reproductive system you have.
I wouldn’t have minded if there had been a question along the lines of ‘is your gender different to your birth sex’ or something like that.

Male sexual partners of transgender women would not fall under the men who have sex with men deferral policy in their assessment

What the actual fuck?

If it's not important, why bother asking about men who have sex with men anyway?

If it IS important enough medically to keep in - then how about we prioritise reality and keeping people safe over polite lies to benefit people's sense of self? This is insane! Please, someone tell me I've misunderstood this somehow?