Female mammogram technician

[KangarooKenny]

Just had an appointment for my mammogram with the NHS, and it states that it will be a female doing it. Could it be a transgender woman ?

Vanishingly small probability. If a transwoman was a technician and spent all day doing mammograms, they would have to deal with complaint after complaint after complaint. We’d already know.

Caveat: I may be wrong..

...but I thought 'female' meant someone born a female but 'woman' could be anyone who identifies as a woman.

If they say a female will be doing this, I'd assume it's someone with a vagina?

I'd have thought that if it says it's a female doing it then it would be a female. I know TWAF is toted by the likes of Willieby and Montgomery but I don't think the NHS has gone that far.

The NHS has gone that far, but AFAIK the mammogram clinics are holding out.

I asked when I went for mine and they told me it was women only and would only be female staff. Its a very woke town. I've decided to check every time I have to go.

I had the same response, our mammogram clinic is holding the line, too. For which I am grateful.

It will be a woman. There was some whiny man on Twitter a few years ago complaining that he wasn't allowed into the clinic to support his friend.

Thankfully he was told to sod off.

I went for one recently. There was a male patient at the same time and the all female staff were really careful to keep him in a separate waiting area, changing area etc. I was very reassured.

Wasn't that a man who self identifies as a bullying expert? Funny that.

I'm immensely grateful that so far this line has held. I've had a good few mammograms now and it's a very intimate procedure indeed. I stand there naked from the waist up and the radiographer takes hold of each breast in turn and moves it to get it in the right position before each X-ray. I feel quite comfortable with this because the radiographer has always been another woman. No need for a chaperone so also keeps NHS costs down.

Oh yes it was him @MrsOvertonsWindow! Well remembered.

It's very very likely it'll be a female person, but perhaps best not to ask in case this happens, as it did with someone who has an MBE for LGBT+ campaigning.

www.brightonandhovenews.org/2019/12/09/hospital-apologises-to-rape-victim-for-branding-her-request-for-same-sex-breast-screening-medic-as-transphobic/

I assume you can buy a vagina too.

...or grow one.

Not really. Hardly any transwomen have sexual reassignment surgery, and a good thing too, as the success rate is poor and the risk of complications, post-op infections etc is considerable. What they are left with is in no way comparable to a true vagina, which plays such an important part in birth. Surgeons and males appear fixated on its role in sex instead and see it as a receptacle, hence the push to rename it as a 'hole' when it's actually a tube. Incredibly disrespectful.

i had my routine screening recently. It shouldn’t really be a particularly heartwarming experience but it was so nice to be in that female space with all females and just feel safe and confident in it. It was full of that very female energy that I have known before in nhs wards, female changing rooms etc but that you now can’t relax into in the same way, in most contexts.

(I know men can get breast cancer but are treated separately as previously described.)

When I went for screening I was grumbling about not being able to keep my shirt on. Frankly, although not deliberately rude, I was being a bit of an arse. In the, vanishingly small, chance that any of the female staff read this post, I would like to apologise. I should have at the time. Sorry.

@KangarooKenny

"I assume you can buy a vagina too."

Fair point. I should have said someone with XY chromosomes

Here you are Clymene. FWR are never impressed with narcissist mysogynistic men:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3299191-A-new-member-of-the-Leftie-Misogynists-club

The chance of your mammogram being done by a TG woman is tiny. It wouldn’t even occur to me to think about that-the percentage of radiographers who practise mammography is already small. Interestingly, in some other countries, a mammogram can be done by either sex. There is pressure in the UK to allow that as there is such a shortage of people. Would people also object to a male breast surgeon? Or a male breast radiologist doing a scan? We have plenty of those. And male sonographers or gynaecologist doing intimate vaginal exams?

There is pressure in the UK to allow that as there is such a shortage of people.

That makes no sense whatsoever. If there’s a shortage of trained technicians, then train more women. If the shortage is due to pay or working conditions then improve them.

There is no plausible scenario in which opening up the job to men could solve staff shortages. Women are 50% of the population. We aren’t going to run out of women.

In fact if this were implemented it would only make shortages of staff even worse as many women would refuse a male technician, which would mean overburdening the female staff if NHS money were used to employ a man in that job.

Absolutely stupid idea, clearly targeted at dismantling women’s boundaries and not at solving an actual problem.

"female" is unambiguous. It means someone with XX chromosomes .

I think there is a difference between a mammogram and a breast exam. I’ve had both and haven’t had a problem with a male gp doing the exam but definitely want it to be only a woman doing the mammogram.
I have no problem with male gynaecologist and obstetricians but would not want a nske person to try to help with breastfeeding.
Merseyside nhs mammogram info says it will be a female person.

Male person not nske person!

When a male HCP performs an intimate procedure on a woman patient, a chaperone is needed, so the costs go up. I was referred to a breast surgeon for regular check ups in my 40s because of a family history of breast cancer. The surgeon was male and on every single occasion a female nurse sat in while he examined me. All fine, but if the surgeon had been female I'd have been perfectly happy to see her alone. (Not my request to have a chaperone - she was just there, and quite right too.)

There is a strong likelihood that some women patients needing non-emergency treatment would refuse to have a male HCP at all, either for religious reasons or because of previous experience of abuse, or just because they're not comfortable with it. And that is their right.

The answer to staff shortages in this area is to train more female HCPs.

The chance of your mammogram being done by a TG woman is tiny.

But the size of the risk doesn't matter. If there's any chance at all of being pressured into having a male-bodied technician, or simply finding that that's who is handling my breasts without any warning, then I would not feel safe.

Same as the discomfort I now feel going into women's toilets, because childhood sexual assault left me with a very strong fear of being trapped with a male-bodied person between me and the door. In the past it would have been unthinkable, whereas now it's a possibility.