More “inclusive” female health

[jcurve]

Saw this posted on Facebook by www.theendometriosissummit.com/

I recently had 3 hours of surgery for this debilitating condition affecting 10% of women. It’s mangled my very female pelvic anatomy and severely compromised my fertility by attacking my very female ovaries and rendering my very female Fallopian tubes useless.

I’m bemused that despite doctors telling me for years that my painful & heavy periods were “just part of being a woman”, my poor uterus is just now a social construct.

Are we seriously not even allowed to own the really shitty bits of being female?

“Opening an email this morning and seeing a webinar on women with endometriosis left us confused.

Endometriosis has no gender.

Some reasons why we say people with endometriosis-

The amazing Heather Reich Edwards taught us that organs don’t actually have a gender. You may think a uterus is female and a scrotum is male but those are applied and assumed constructs. Something like a road or a glass isnt male or female its the construct you apply to it. Just take a moment to let that sink in.

Trans (and yes the word is trans not trans men or trans females as SE Frank taught us at the Endo Summit Workshop) have endometriosis.

Not everyone identifies as male or as female, as their given gender at birth, or even as any gender. Not to mention even people born without a uterus can have endometriosis.

It is time to be inclusive and welcoming to all with endometriosis. Saying people with endometriosis vs women with endometriosis ensures that the entire community is represented.

The Endometriosis Summit supports inclusivity. This is why we have included Gender and Menstruation workshops, panels on LBBTQAI and trans endometriosis at our conferences.

Especially for those with a big voice in the community it is time to welcome everyone with endometriosis.”

Just take a moment to let that sink in.

That's a 'let that PENETRATE' moment, isn't it?

It's incredibly insulting to women. These people are unbelievable.

Endometriosis has no gender.

No, but the people who have endometriosis have a sex - female - and the disease is often ignored because as you say OP, female pain is often written off as normal.

This seems to come from a talk called "equality in menstruation" at the summit they refer to:

"1030-1200 Equality in Menstruation Frankie (S. E. Frank) Madison, Wisconsin; Menstruation has been historically categorized as feminine – a function of the female body that affects women. Trans and genderqueer people face this biological function as a social signal of gender/sex identity."

This is so regressive. Everyone knows that menstruation only affects women. Nobody can escape that. You can escape the idea that your identity is somehow defined by the fact that you menstruate, however, instead their solution is to pretend that menstruation could happen to anyone.

Something like a road or a glass isnt male or female its the construct you apply to it. Just take a moment to let that sink in.

If some roads produced blood every month, and some didn't, I think we would try and work out why, and we might come up with a word to classify the different kinds of road. Just take a moment to let that sink in.

Rather than coin a new word, they simply appropriated an existing word: endometriosis.

I'm no expert on endometriosis but I thought the whole point was that it relates to the endometrium - of the uterus. Leave aside those rare female DSD without a uterus cases, but the male cases involving other tissues have nothing to do with endometrial tissue even if the behaviour of the disease is somewhat similar. So it should be named after whatever male tissue has a propensity to behave in this way.

Why do people even have the time to dream this shit up? I know let's wish I had a horrible painful disease that those women get...

And someone should tell them that in other languages a glass and a road are gendered. Mind. Blown.

'Menstruation has been historically categorized as feminine – a function of the female body that affects women'

I can't think of anything less 'feminine' than periods.

Feminity dictates that women are weak fainters who don't shit, fart, bellow with laughter, sweat etc etc

The amazing Heather Reich Edwards taught us that organs don’t actually have a gender. You may think a uterus is female and a scrotum is male but those are applied and assumed constructs. Something like a road or a glass isnt male or female its the construct you apply to it. Just take a moment to let that sink in.

Even though the whole thing is quite horrifying, this bit did actually make me laugh. It's just so ridiculous, and so offensive as well, no one outside of the batshit bubble these people are in can believe this, but this kind of utter shite is where it all leads.

Also, we keep being told 'duh, of course no one thinks that biological sex isn't real' - but these wallys are saying just that aren't they? Is 'male and female' about gender or sex or what?

When I google Heather Reich Edwards I don't get any clear answers. Why would anybody take their word about endometriosis, or anything else? Surely, if they're not a prominent specialist in gynaecology their opinion is totally invalid?

As far as I can see, they're not a particularly well qualified physiotherapist, but they do have some special interests:

'She is currently leading a research team to assess transgender pelvic health needs and offers a LGBTQIA affirming, kink informed, trauma informed, and sex positive environment'

pelvicrehab.com/practitioner/heather-edwards-pt/

Naw no need for blah blah.

Sometimes people are just stupid despite their education

Just stupid

Like pp said

All mammals know what male and female are.
Humans would have known before they developed language although I imagine words for this would be some of the first.

The words are a construct. The sexes exist whether they are named or not.

Talk about arse about face.

and yes the word is trans not trans men or trans females

'Men' and 'females'. I guess the authors figure that the battle for 'women' is won and now they're coming for the purely sex-based term. FFS.

www.theendometriosissummit.com/conference-2020.html

945-1045 ExtraGenital Endometriosis Not all endometriosis is found within the reproductive system of the ovaries, tubes, and uterus. Endometriosis can be found in lots of different areas of the body from the bowel and bladder to the lung and even onto the pericardium. This panel presents research and discussion on why a multi-specialty team is needed for endometriosis care and breaks down the nitty gritty of treating endometriosis surgically; how to treat extra genital endometriosis correctly; what the symptoms and treatments are for lung, bladder, and bowel endometriosis; why everything that ails the pelvic does not have to be endometriosis; the rubrics of surgery; healing from surgery and preventing adhesions; how to choose a surgeon; robotics vs traditionally laparoscopy; and the topics that our Town Meeting audience bring. Learn why what your local GYN is saying may not be true

So I googled ‘what does endometriosis mean‘ and first result from www.uclahealth.org/obgyn/endometriosis

“Endometriosis is a disorder where the tissue that makes up the uterine lining (the lining of the womb) grows outside the uterus. Endometriosis is usually found in the lower abdomen, or pelvis, but can appear anywhere in the body.
Endometriosis is estimated to affect between 3% and 10% of reproductive-aged women.”

Also googled ‘extragenital endometriosis’ (note one word, not two)

“Endometriosis is a gynaecologic disease characterized by endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity. Commonly it affects the pelvic organs. When endometrial nodules or plaques are localized in sites other than the uterus or ovaries, it is termed extragenital endometriosis.“

And it’s pretty rare.

All of these definitions are female specific, using female sex specific language (women, womb, ovaries, gynaecological, endometrial, uterine) an’ all.

The words we’ve agreed to use so we have a common understanding might be a social construct, but it’s a very important one as it allows us to communicate and language is something we developed very quickly, but, as PP have said all of the words are a label for a thing. That is then also labeled as belonging to another thing.

Maybe we should just go back to grunts and stick drawings.
I‘d lay bets though that the two legged upright walkie thing would still know which other part of the two legged upright walkie thing they should have sex with to produce a baby.

This is why we have included Gender and Menstruation workshops, panels on LBBTQAI and trans endometriosis at our conferences.

I’m not sure what part of the acronym means. Is it a typo cos I couldn’t find this para on their webinar info?

L, B, Q - I get, they maybe missed off G because that’s for men (but aren’t transmen gay too?) but no idea what the other B is? I’m assuming A is asexual and I is intersex?

What am I missing?

Clothes are definitely a social construct.

Without them it's pretty obvious who is what.

I had an email at work the other day about a session on endometriosis awareness. They had deliberately left the word woman out of the email and in doing so mangled the facts, suggesting that it affects as many people in the U.K. as diabetes. In reality, it affects as many women as diabetes does but this is not true across the whole population because men don't get endometriosis obviously. The email was sent by our local inclusivity champion

Seeing women now unable to name themselves and women's health issues is so depressing.

Speedy wishes for recovery, OP.

Based on her responses to responses in that Facebook post and the website for the summit, the main organiser is firmly on the side of the kind of inclusiveness which leaves all windows and doors unlocked and open when it is women's houses and invites anyone in who wishes to enter while also privileging the newcomers' wishes over those of the long-term residents.

I think the LBBTQ is a typo - everything I've found on Google referencing it later refers to LGBTQ.

Makes more sense, but in this ever shifting quicksand of ‘queer theory’ I just never know 🤡 🌎

Weird. The person responding angrily to all gc comments at that Facebook account has a website which talks about endo as a condition affecting women and girls. salliesarrel.com/

So she/they must have changed their views fairly recently.

Change the narrative indeed!

It is gender bollocks.

However, regardless of trans ideology, I find there can be a benefit, sometimes, to using gender neutral language, even when referring to uniquely female conditions.

Referring to a person through their sexual organs or bodily functions is dehumanising and objectifying ("cervix havers", "menstruators" 😑)

But in my experience, to some people, the word "women" means just that: a potentially fuckable object, with no genuine human identity.
By swapping "woman"/"women" for "person"/"people", we reaffirm her (our) humanity.

I think I read somewhere (citation needed... ) that in some US surveys about abortion rights, support for "pro-choice" policies was stronger when the questions mentioned "person" instead of "woman" (e.g. "pregnancy can take a heavy toll on a person's body").
It seems to neutralise some of the respondent's implicit bias.

I don't think gender neutral language is particularly suitable when addressing the persons themselves (e.g., in a newsletter to endometriosis sufferers, who are painfully aware of their own femaleness, and may also struggle with a sense of lost feminity, e.g. in term of fertility), but it can be useful (strategically) when communicating to a wider audience (which is bound to include people who do not see women as people, and constantly need reminding)

She is currently leading a research team to assess transgender pelvic health needs and offers a LGBTQIA affirming, kink informed, trauma informed, and sex positive environment

Oh my fucking shitcakes. The end of sanity is here.

But in my experience, to some people, the word "women" means just that: a potentially fuckable object, with no genuine human identity.

I couldn’t care less what the word woman means to other people. If they want to define women in such derogatory terms, they are a shit person who doesn’t get to redefine women according to their shit views.