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.”

What total and utter bollocks!! I cannot comprehend this at all.

Sex organs are categorised as male and female. Uterus is a female sex organ.

If women were not systematically oppressed, ignored, undervalued, abused, under represented but really treated as equals to men, I am not sure that it would be at all infuriating.

It may well be that using the word person results in a more benign response to rights than using the word woman but as it is also the case that using the word person instead of man or woman, usually results in the assumption that the subject is male thus erasing women from discussions, then this is not the right way forward.

As for the other gender stuff bringing roads and glass into it... I would love to see what the TRA discussion looks like in French or German...

The disagreeing comments on that Facebook page have now disappeared. I didn't know you can do that.

The only social construct concerning endometriosis is the social construct of sexism. Of a largely Male and masculinise medical profession disbelieving and belittling women’s knowledge of their female bodies.

FFS

Endo has been the bane of my existence since my menses started at 12yrs old.

These days I get about a 12 day break between 10 day-long periods; this last one was a standout doozy. There is nothing to help me short of a hysterectomy but it isn't covered by insurance as it is considered 'an elective procedure'. I am in Stage 3 and infertile as a result, facing the inevitable eventual fusion of my organs with endo as the glue.

Love and solidarity to OP (and all other posters and all other GIRLS/WOMEN/FEMALES that live with this condition).

@ChateauMargaux

What total and utter bollocks!! I cannot comprehend this at all.

Sex organs are categorised as male and female. Uterus is a female sex organ.

If women were not systematically oppressed, ignored, undervalued, abused, under represented but really treated as equals to men, I am not sure that it would be at all infuriating.

It may well be that using the word person results in a more benign response to rights than using the word woman but as it is also the case that using the word person instead of man or woman, usually results in the assumption that the subject is male thus erasing women from discussions, then this is not the right way forward.

As for the other gender stuff bringing roads and glass into it... I would love to see what the TRA discussion looks like in French or German...

Yes to everything you said.

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.

Wtf?

Women are not human? Fuck that. I don't need to reclaim my humanity, thanks. I will not be redefined by other people.

No we need to get female /women/ girl status up to men rather than disguising who we are in order to get taken seriously.

I know where you're coming from but it's not a good idea to my mind.

Could any of the patient charities pick this gaslighty nonsense up on social media to highlight how absolutely farcical things are getting for female patients?

Endometriosis UK? National Voices? Wellbeing of Women?

@FireUnderTheHand

It's odd though, how the Prostate Cancer UK website claims that "men, we are with you" when it's obvious that not all with prostates are men

Not everyone identifies as male or as female, as their given gender at birth

Aren’t we assigned our sex at birth not our gender.

Why do people keep saying gender. Isn’t that factually incorrect.

Good point paintedPanda

What was that rule of misogyny again..?

‘Men are whatever they say they are, women are whatever men say they are..‘

What are they hoping to achieve by this?

An endometriosis sufferer would be much more concerned with getting treatment for the condition than the semantics used to describe it surely.

Women's reproductive health is already given a piss poor response. I wish they would spend their time actually trying to help women with this affliction instead of appeasing the fucking trans lobby!!!!