Men can't get cervical cancer

[ohwerehalfwaythere]

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/cervical-cancer-prevention-week-2020-symptoms-a9300756.html

Article about surviving cervical cancer and yet feels the need to say she is a cis woman...didn't realise men couldn't get cervical cancer without a cervix...thanks for making it clear

Perhaps she's acknowledging that female people who call themselves trans can get cervical cancer too?

I think you're being a bit harsh OP.

I think she's acknowledging it's easy for her to say 'go & get a smear' and there are lots of barriers to other women going & getting their smears done.

Being a woman/female is not a barrier to getting a smear

Transmen know they are female. I would imagine they are acutely aware of their cervix given the dysphoria. Her use of the word Cis was not necessary as she followed it with educated woman.

She was just being woke for no reason.

I agree she was virtue signalling, but I don't think she really thought it through. She was talking about women only.

I just loathe the term Cis. It's so offensive, it really winds me up and seeing it used it the context of such a woman-only issue is ridiculous

I've recently had an invitation for a routine smear and the first instance of the word 'woman' is at the bottom of the first page of the leaflet where it says trans women don't need screening. Doesn't mention women again until the last page (I don't have the leaflet with me otherwise I'd be more accurate). It made me unreasonably cross.

It made you reasonably cross

Woke fuckers so they are

She is talking about overcoming the reasons why so many people don’t go for smear tests.

She says I’m sharing my story and desperately promoting cervical cancer awareness as a cis, straight, white, educated woman, without a disability, who has a relatively positive relationship with her body. I didn’t have to face any of the additional barriers enforced by society or the screening system when it came to accessing healthcare and getting my cancer diagnosis

Being a Trans Man must surely make it harder. She is calling herself Cis, not you or other women, and that is her prerogative.

As a GC woman I think It is an important article.

Being a woman/female is not a barrier to getting a smear

Being a TransMan would be though. Having a beard and a man’s name, sitting in the waiting room of the Well Woman clinic, or booking in for a smear with your average GP Receptionist.

She is talking about overcoming the reasons why so many people don’t go for smear tests.

And women have been erased from that article. The only time the word 'woman' is mentioned is in that paragraph you quoted. This is about a cancer which only women can get.

I’m so fucking sick of identify politics permeating everything, cervical smears are for adult human females aka women and any factsheets/literature/marketing needs to be absolutely woman focused.

Taking testosterone can cause a lot of damage to female organs I always assumed many trans men had hysterectomy because of this

A very small minority is the tail wagging the whole pack of dogs. Why?

The only thing you need to have to get a smear is a cervix.
Males do not have them.

I think the article is great but this need to ensure you mean cervix owner when you say woman ( hence the cis) is what pisses me off. We are women. Only women have a cervix is that not enough.

Being a TransMan would be though. Having a beard and a man’s name, sitting in the waiting room of the Well Woman clinic, or booking in for a smear with your average GP Receptionist

It's not a barrier. If the transman was sent the reminder letter gave the correct details at reception and it said female as in the true sense not changed because you want it to be on the file then there would be no issue.

My smear is done at the GP. Nobody but my GP and the receptionist knows I am there.

All that aside some woman using the word cis in an article is not going to change any of the stuff you mentioned.

I assume transwomen would still have prostate (?) - I assume (please someone tell me?) that even if someone has transitioned they wouldn't have this removed? Hence - could they develop prostate cancer? (& yes I know that female hormones can hold it off but eventually they don't if prostate cancer progresses). Basically can NHS et al stop being so precious this is getting ridiculous...

It's not a barrier

I'd say if you're 'living as a man' - whatever that means to you - and wanting to pass, and committed to your manly inner essence, I'd say trotting off to your smear is about 999th on your list of things you want to do, irrespective of whether it's the Dr or Family Planning clinic.

It's not a physical barrier, but I'd imagine it's a mental one. And that's all the article is briefly acknowledging in it's wokey way - she hardly labours the trans/cis point IMO, its one of several factors mentioned.

Its 998th on my list to be honest - its taken me over a month to book mine and I'm a very boring, sensible, educated, able bodied woman.

(trying to imagine why anyone who doesn't need to would willing submit to having a smear unless they have too)

If it's that much of a barrier and a reminder of womanhood get it removed.

Sex is not changeable and trying to deny it's a fact is what causes distress. Changing what women are wont solve that level of messed up it just causes more distress.

Women with reading & learning difficulties, those who don't speak a lot of English etc need clarity. We all do.

Can we agree on wording that works - and start promoting it to the NHS etc?

Here's a start:

'Who needs a smear test?

All women, including trans men who still have a cervix and non binary people of the female sex.

The NHS does not provide smear tests for trans women'.

I've just read. I read it as she was mentioning it as one reason might not find it easy to go for a smear.
As in there's a lot of reasons might not be able to, always important, mentioned cis because being one myself dead easy to go get one but probably not so easy being trans

Yeah I don't think transwomen can have the prostate removed.

Yeah I don't think transwomen can have the prostrate removed
No one's said they can though? Not even in the article

Whoever you are - you know what you’ve got surely? And how to take care of it?

If I chose to be addressed as a male tomorrow and ‘live as a man’ I wouldn’t just forget that I need to have a smear.

Why is it so difficult for women to get a smear?

Because thanks to the literature/ newspapers etc removing the word women, many women don’t realise they need to have them.

The article introduces the issue of not enough women having smears with the words 3000 new cases. Fine for an academic journal. Not fine for an article discussing the lack of uptake of WOMEN not having smears.

Health literacy in the UK is low and health promotion literature - inc this article as that is what it purports to do- is supposed to communicate clearly to the patient population it is aimed at. Cervical cancer is highly preventable. Any women alienated/confused by the lack of clarity in the literature, who doesn’t think smears are aimed at them, and then develops cervical cancer is a disgrace and is on the NHS, the charities, the papers who remove the word woman.