Stop mixing up sex and gender GPs told

[flyingbuttress43]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/02/doctors-must-stop-mixing-sex-gender-patients-undergoing-wrong/

Doctors have been told to stop mixing up sex and gender because it can end up with people getting the wrong treatment.

Senior medical researchers led by the University of St Andrews said there was clear evidence that biological sex and gender were both powerful risk factors for "virtually every disease and affect every organ."

The article is behind a pay wall, so here are some salient points...

Sex differences in drug metabolism were well recognised;
Gender significantly affected how a person engaged with treatment;
One GP, commenting on the article on the BMJ website said she spent hours a week ensuring the right people were called for cervical smears;
NHS systems do not allow for sex and gender to be recorded separately;
Sex and gender are not synonymous.

"Dr Margaret McCartney of the School of Medicine at St Andrews, said: "There are many instances of sex and gender being confused by the research community and society more broadly. Unless we identify and count categories correctly, we will end up with errors which serves all populations poorly."

All so obvious to us on Feminism Chat, but good to see push back
on this sex/gender mixup from the research community.

Quite. Who woulda thunk it, eh? Only us and anyone else who hasn't abandoned common sense in a quest to "be kind".

I'm appalled that doctors actually need to be told this. It's common bloody sense 😶

Well said Dr. McCartney, at last some fucking adults in the room.

"Dr Margaret McCartney of the School of Medicine at St Andrews, said: "There are many instances of sex and gender being confused by the research community and society more broadly. Unless we identify and count categories correctly, we will end up with errors which serves all populations poorly."

Margaret McCartney and Susan Bewley are notable for being woman-focused advocates of evidence-based medicine.

Gosh! How amazing! Sex is important - who would have thought?

Why can't the NHS have a field for sex and a field for gender? Those who wish to record their gender could then request that information be added?

Incredible this has to be said but it's good it has been..

It is just SO bloody obvious.

What hope is there for the rest of the population when even the medical experts don’t know the difference between sex and gender

@Outwithreason

Why can't the NHS have a field for sex and a field for gender? Those who wish to record their gender could then request that information be added?

I'm not R0wantrees but I have a vague memory of a thread and this article about the NHS and the classifiers of sex and gender (it's a 2-parter):

medium.com/@anneharperwright/sex-gender-the-nhs-1e8f4e6363a6

medium.com/@anneharperwright/sex-gender-the-nhs-bb86b0c3ebb

Just had to sign a vaccination consent form. It asks for your gender, no mention of sex.

My worry is that the words woman and man would be deemed appropriate for the gender category, with female/male for the sex category. This would consolidate the appropriation of the word woman to mean feelings/stereotypes, losing the specific words we need to describe sex as it relates to humans.

I develop digital forms in my NHS trust and I always ensure the form asks sex not gender and make sure people understand that is because the risk factors for different things change based of your biological sex. Our systems do record sex at birth and current gender, but I don't know that it is that clear when you are viewing records really.

Though obviously recognising that these are completely separate categories is good (assuming they actually mean gender identity rather than gender, which in my view is not chosen, but imposed and is sex specific)

I can't believe any doctors have to be told this. In my line of work I absolutely have to refer to biological sex as it makes a massive difference. I have some transgender clients at present and will use whatever pronouns requested of me, but make it very clear at consultation that sex and gender will be treated separately. My clients haven't had any problems with the differentiation.

I think this is based on the article in the BMJ a couple of weeks back which will now reach more people via the Times.

Some trans activists commented on this article this morning as according to them it proves how we do need sex/gender/organs recorded more accurately on everyones medical records.

The idea is that we do away with the simple M/F sex box but obviously the gender category is a necessity with as many options as people need. Then there will be a list of organs (uterus, cervix, ovaries, breasts, penis, testicles, prostate etc) and an individual ticks whether they have them or not. I guess they will also need to specify how many of each they have?

Do they really think that would work well for the vast majority of the country? I suppose that wouldn't matter provided it's an inclusive system and no trans person is forced to 'dox' themselves.

we do need sex/gender/organs recorded more accurately on everyones medical records.

I must admit that I was irritated it took >6 weeks for the vaccination programme to start asking people which ethnicity category they would pick (no data collected previously).

Patient confidentiality needs protecting though. Eg receptionists don’t need to know people’s birth sex. It could lead to misgendering (or dodgy furtive glances) which would put some people off from seeking care.

In situations where it really matters then yes a consultant for example might need to know in which case a note that the patient is transsexual m2f or f2m can be included in the referral (which I believe many doctors discretely do) or perhaps there could be different levels of access to records based on position and a need to know basis.

Stop the press!

@EmbarrassingAdmissions - thank you for the links. It's evrn more shocking that the NHS already has this facility but it hasn't been used correctly.

The New Bioethics
A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body
Volume 26, 2020

'De-sexing the Medical Record? An Examination of Sex Versus Gender Identity in the General Medical Council’s Trans Healthcare Ethical Advice'
Sara Dahlen
Published online: 03 Feb 2020

Abstract
"What do the terms sex and gender identity, or gender history, mean in a medical context? When does it matter to a healthcare professional whether a patient has male or female reproductive biology? How should a doctor approach a patient who does not wish for their biological sex to be openly acknowledged? The General Medical Council (GMC) advises doctors that transgender patients may have the marker for their sex amended to instead reflect their gender identity. This paper will attempt to critically examine two key points in the GMC trans healthcare ethical advice using Beauchamp and Childress’ Four Principles approach, exploring how doctors might consider an incongruence between sex and gender identity in clinical practice." (continues)
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20502877.2020.1720429

Sydney Selwyn Winner
Speaker: Dr Sara Dahlen
Lecture title: An examination of sex versus gender identity in the GMC's Trans Healthcare Ethical Advice

9 Oct 2020

As Dr Dahlen makes clear in both the paper and lecture the additional field relevant to those who identify as transgender is 'gender identity'

And in other news, bears poo in the woods.

I have a vague memory of a thread and this article about the NHS and the classifiers of sex and gender

EmbarrassingAdmissions Is this the thread you're thinking of?

OP Barracker wrote (Tue 16-Oct-18),

"We've been lied to about 'Single SEX' wards since 2010.

medium.com/@anneharperwright/sex-gender-the-nhs-1e8f4e6363a6

They were ALWAYS based upon 'gender'.
The evidence is in NHS documents from 2010.
And the Department of Health were told, by the NHS team, not to tell people wards were segregated by sex, because they knew the policy was based on gender.

But the DOH purposefully used the word sex to the public instead.

We've been deliberately misled."

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3396859-Weve-been-lied-to-about-Single-SEX-wards-since-2010

Crazy that in 2021 there is still confusion.

Human biological sex is binary and cannot be changed.

There is male and female. Intersex is not a 3rd biological sex, it is a term for various chromosomal abnormalities.

"gender" is a social construct, and in this age it appears we are told there are over 100 genders.
We all know the facts of life.

If a biological male states he is a "trans woman", he can only change the gender he IDs as. He cannot change his biological sex.

GPs like any medical professional MUST ensure their patients are told that they can have cross sex hormones to give them "secondary" sex characteristics of the opposite biological sex, THEY do not change biological sex.

ANY endocrinologist would make that clear. There is no debate, and as an intersex person it is crazy that I have to avoid upsetting people by giving them biological and medical facts they actually know, but prefer to deny.

Shocking that ANY one employed by the NHS can get this wrong.
Shocking that liberal lefties in social media ban people for stating simple biological reality that ALL society actually denies and is afraid to state.

Patient confidentiality needs protecting though. Eg receptionists don’t need to know people’s birth sex. It could lead to misgendering (or dodgy furtive glances) which would put some people off from seeking care.

I disagree, receptionists along with all NHS staff need to have access to key patient data. They are bound by confidentiality and policy guidelines to treat all patients with respect.
Reception and clerical staff are responsible for inputting the data so it would be ridiculous to hide 'sex' as a sensitive field.