Only consenting to receiving medical treatment from a female is not acceptable

[Siameasy]

mobile.twitter.com/Docstockk/status/1198215833006362630

One NHS trust says it’s unacceptable for women to say they only consent to medical treatment from “natal females”. I find this completely outrageous and couldn’t find a thread on it already. Bloody hell!

I want an HCP who has the same equipment as me. It’s that simple. 35 years of monthly agony written off by male gynaes. One female GP sorted it with the recommendation of a Mirena. 2 female family planning nurses stuffed it through my cervix. It is my absolute right to have my reproductive health care overseen by other people with uteruses. Or who started with uteri but had them removed, before anyone sealions that point.

Same sex wards is a massive derail from what we are actually addressing.

Lots of attempts to derail this thread and ignore the fact that what we are asking for is, in fact, current standard practice minus a layer of gaslighting bollocks which certain people are desperate to introduce.

So how is this Rowan person qualified to decide how female patients are treated?

I had a great female GP once. Like me she had two kids, in her late 30s (then). She performed my smear test, knowing I had issues, caused by a very painful smear test I'd had at 18 by a male doctor . We had lots in common, starting with our biology.

Now we're both in our mid to late 40s. Like me she's probably perimenopausal or menopausal, possibly looking after the healthcare of an ageing mother too. Smear tests, mammograms, juggling kids, careers, home, parents.
We have lots in common.

What does Rowan have in common with me?

It's the Madigan situation all over again isn't it?

Who cares whether a mammogram or an echowhatsit is worse or more painful or more invasive or whatever?

Well clearly the poster who wrote that a mere ultrasound of your chest doesn't count and is in no way to be compared to a painful mammogram.

"The poster who wrote that" has had her uterus ultrasounded on many occasions and found it painless. How was I supposed to know that a heart ultrasound would be any different?

I want an HCP who has the same equipment as me. It’s that simple. 35 years of monthly agony written off by male gynaes. One female GP sorted it with the recommendation of a Mirena. 2 female family planning nurses stuffed it through my cervix.

Which for me was so painful that I was screaming, actually screaming and sobbing. There's no way I could have endured that from a male HCP. It was all I could do to keep from jumping off the bed as it was. The Belgians use cervical anaesthesia, why can't we do that here?

It is my absolute right to have my reproductive health care overseen by other people with uteruses. Or who started with uteri but had them removed, before anyone sealions that point.

This. I want my smear tester to know how it feels to have a smear test, as well as to be born without a rape weapon. It's not about invalidation or being transphobic or defining "woman" non--inclusively, but about wanting a HCP to have the same anatomy as me.

The Belgians use cervical anaesthesia, why can't we do that here?

Because women's pain doesn't count in the UK. I mean, just look at this thread - plenty feel women don't matter or count.

How come Rowan's feelings matter but mine don't? How come a male HCPs feelings matter but mine don't? How come male feelings are prioritised over the feelings of female rape/abuse survivors?

Because your/my/our feelings don't count.

Ugh, it's just chilling.

Some things never change.

Women ask for something (in this case something we already have).

The reaction (from men and from women who don’t really seem to care about other women) is OH MY FUCKING GOD, YOU ARE SO NEEDY, DO YOU WANT THE MOON ON A STICK TOO? Why isn’t ANYTHING ever enough for you? You should be grateful for whatever crumbs are on offer! Then come up with any amount of wild scenarios that women never asked for, in order to demonstrate how unreasonable and unmeetable our wants are.

The Belgians use cervical anaesthesia, why can't we do that here?

It is available here. I know people that have had local anaesthetic before a coil is fitted. Ask for it next time. Might have to go to a different clinic rather than the GP though.

The poster who wrote that" has had her uterus ultrasounded on many occasions and found it painless. How was I supposed to know that a heart ultrasound would be any different?

Maybe in future don't be so dismissive and make snarky comments about things you have no experience of then.

Totally Sophocles- and then derail derail derail. We were talking about Davis though weren't we?

It really is fascinating to observe misogyny of the actively wants women to suffer variety being laid out so clearly. It's obvious that most of those popping in to tell women off for wanting a female HCP don't realize that we already have that right and the only cases in which changing that is being proposed are those where the male HCP identifies as a woman (or possibly anything other than a man? not sure if they've written a policy for non binaries yet, if and when they do it will presumably be as shit as the current one). People are dropping in to "defend" a position that the NHS isn't even taking, just because they hate the idea of women having boundaries that much.

Given that MNHQ has a firm no trollhunting policy I'd suggest that when someone appears to be a bridge dwelling goat eater everyone else simply refrain from engaging with them (no matter how tempting it may be to snap back).

We have a situation - similar to what was being proposed on the police thread - where policy goes against the Equality Act so therefore we are having to rely on either the patient or a brave member of staff to ensure the law is correctly applied.

We also have policy using different definitions of words to everyone else and changing the wording of the law itself

This is a dangerous situation for safeguarding.

They are upset because someone has seen through it

What areas would you exclude them from working in?

The areas in which jobs will be advertised using the beefed up same sex exemptions under EqA that the Labour Party manifesto commits to. What did you think I meant? The tills at Tesco?

Women knocking other women down, for disagreeing.

Women challenging other women for posting unthinking and hackneyed anti-feminist tropes.

There. Fixed it for you.

Yes, there will be NHS staff who know that this isn't right and who will act to protect patients. Those individuals will potentially be subject to disciplinary action, for doing their jobs well and taking the best interests of their patients into account. Think what would happen if, say, Harrop found out that someone in his local NHS trust had done so - he'd hound them to the ends of the earth.

The only people who benefit from this policy are those who can't hear the word "no" without flying into a narcissistic rage.

Kittens and, of course, there is a benefit to those who would see safeguarding eroded to suit their own nefarious intentions. Rapists. Pedophiles. The sick fucks of the world.

Haven't rtft yet so this may have already been said

I don’t believe anyone should be saying they want to be treated by a ‘natal’ female — but if you do have issues with past sexual abuse etc you can certainly ask for them to be considered by having a third or even fourth person in the room
So the NHS is on its knees, yet we can find money for an extra 3 people to be present (possibly all male which wont help) instead of just finding me one woman?
Not sure how extra people at my exam will help me when my response to being seen half naked by up to 4 people(possibly all male) kicks in. Will, they hold me down and do whatever anyway? You know child abuse isnt solely one on one right? Some of us had more than one, more than 10 men present abusing us at a time.
You all know damn well what will happen. Women wont go to these screenings. I know the first time I get a man doing my mammogram is the last time I'll go for one. I dont do smears anyway because of past trauma, but other women will opt out or never attend.
Women will die from curable things just so men can be stunning and fucking brave. Piss off.

Dangerfloof. :-(

The Belgians use cervical anaesthesia, why can't we do that here?

It is available here. I know people that have had local anaesthetic before a coil is fitted. Ask for it next time.

Oh, I was meant to know that that was an option I could ask for on my first ever coil fit, was I? It wasn't mentioned in the leaflet and it wasn't offered.

Might have to go to a different clinic rather than the GP though.

I did, I went to a special familiy planning clinic attached to the maternity hospital. And what horrifies me, 15 years later with hindsight, is that I was screaming but they still didn't stop and offer anaesthetic.

In Belgium, I started shaking before I got on the couch and the gyn asked what was up, so I said I was scared of the pain after last time, so the gyn holds up a syringe and says "this is lidocaine, you won't feel anything after I inject this".

Maybe in future don't be so dismissive and make snarky comments about things you have no experience of then.

So it's A-OK for other people to tell me that I'm wrong for wanting a female HCP even after I disclose a) how much a coil fitting hurts and b) my CSA-induced vaginismus, but it's not OK for me to fail to read people's minds about an echo? Can I say "double standards"?

I think "raging hypocrite" might be an even better description!

You know child abuse isnt solely one on one right? Some of us had more than one

Yes. There were two older boys in my case, standing over me. Even decades later, I get nervy when men stand to talk to me whilst I'm seated at my desk. It affects even my choice of lover: I have tended to prefer men around my height rather than much taller.

more than 10 men present abusing us at a time.

There's no guarantee that two or more male HCPs wouldn't collude to molest patients and provide false witness to protect each other. X goes for a smear with Y and Z chaperones: if Y and Z collude then no one will believe X, especially if X is mentally ill or has a learning difficulty. Y and Z are much more likely to do this if they are male.

And this is why the "well bad things happen but I don't distrust all men because of that" comments make me roll my eyes so hard. None of us think all men are predators. That's not the point. The point is that for some inexplicable reason the ones who are seem resistant to wearing a convenient PREDATOR or RAPIST sign on their foreheads, and as we therefore can't tell which ones are going to present a problem the only way to minimize the risk is to make rules that cover males as a group.

Not all sharks you happen to be near are going to bite you but if there was a pool full of great whites and someone was all "you know, I don't think I fancy jumping in there without some sort of safety precautions" that decision wouldn't be subject to dozens of "NOT ALL SHARKS YOU BIGOT" responses. Even though men kill far more women than sharks do.

Even decades later, I get nervy when men stand to talk to me whilst I'm seated at my desk.

So I'm really not going to react well if there's several males standing over me whilst I'm lying down and one of them is hurting my vagina.

What happened to "first, do no harm"?