Our Future Health study

[Chersfrozenface]

There's a story on the BBC website today www.bbc.com/news/health-63331805

I read the details, and after signing up, you can withdraw fully at any time.

So I signed up, went to the questionnaire, and the first question used the wording "sex assigned at birth".

So I went to the "withdraw" page and clicked "fully withdraw". To do that you have to phone a number. I did that, and the agent at the other end said my withdrawal would be noted and I would receive a confirmation email. She then asked why. I told her that my sex was observed at birth, no-one assigned it to me, and that a health study that didn't recognise that fact was not based on biology and was therefore not worth taking part in. She said my reason would be passed on to more senior staff. Good.

Well done.

Entire project (and all its costs) rendered utterly pointless at question 1.

Oh, that’s disappointing …

The other thing is that one of the choices for "sex assigned at birth" was "prefer not to say".

Given that biological sex has major implications in so many areas of health, what the hell is the point of gathering information on people whose sex you don't know? Spoiler: there is none, the information is entirely useless.

This makes me think of how my daughters birth certificate from canada says assigned female. I always think about that. Her legal biological sex is a mystery as far as the canadian government is concerned. She’s not assigned female she is female. I do not understand how this has affected such a great deal of the world. It is very sad.

Fucking idiots. All this effort and money and they're going to disregard one of the most important health metrics in favour of woo.

Yeah I thought about signing up and noticed that. They then go on to ask about gender identity 🙄

I think the more people sign up and then withdraw, telling them that the "assigned at birth" and "gender identity" questions invalidate the study, the better.

Late to this convo but I just received my invite, saw the questions and have asked to withdraw.

Very disappointed and feel the science is undermined!

I've started the questionnaire and sent a query off to support re assigned sex

I've also emailed Steve Barclay as minister for health about the study and pointing out that it will have no relevance what so ever given it could be based upon "feelings"

This is how they're responding to those who complain:
We appreciate and understand your feedback regarding the sex and gender questions and we are working on improving our questionnaire. This feedback has also been forwarded to our team that is designing the questionnaire and will be taken onboard.

So frustrating to see health issues repeatedly hijacked by an ignorant approach to language, health & fundamental sex differences - simply to pander to self interested groups and individuals.

Yes. They've fucked it before it even starts.

I began the signing up process. The aims of the organisation seem admirable, and this sort of mass research has worked well, for instance the Zoe project. I started the questionnaire with the section "about your household" which begins with questions about my sex change. Which I haven't had. I decided not to bother going any further and tried to withdraw. In order to withdraw I have to ring an 0808 number. Almost as though this were a hard sell, trying to force something on me.
Apart from its admirable aims and government backing this has many of the hallmarks of a scam.

Is it reasonable to sign up now that they are asking me my sex "registered at birth"? If they just asked "what is your sex" all the "transwomen" would describe themselves as female.

It's pleasing that they've listened and have removed the gender woowoo "assigned" and replaced it with a more scientifically accurate "registered".

"Registered at birth" sounds perfect and accurate, and unless I've missed something (entirely possible) should provide the right information without offending anyone.

I signed up to this project but have sent in a lengthy formal complaint. I've had no response so far. I will be following up as this is too important to let go. Either it's a serious study or it isn't. If it is, they have to recognise biological sex and get their questions accurately worded. I've said the questionnaire needs to be withdrawn as they have rendered it invalid.

This is good to hear! I stopped participating months ago, as soon as I saw “sex assigned at birth”.

Though of course your sex registered at birth is your sex for the rest of your life. No human can ever change sex

If a so-called medical study can't make that clear it's no use

They could always put in some flim-flam like "you may also have a gender identity - if so, please note it here" in order to record any of the however many gender identities there are at any given moment.

Obviously the study will need a section or sections on what surgical procedure each respondent has had. This would be required for anyone - tonsillectomy, appendectomy, rhinoplasty, etc as well as plastic surgery to mimic the other sex's appearance.

Also a section on medications taken in the past or being taken currently, again required for anyone - contraceptives, statins, blood thinners as well as artificial cross sex hormones, isotretinoin etc.

Thanks, everyone.