Male asked if I am pregnant when donating blood

[slipperypenguin]

I am a GC male. I am a regular blood donor, but today for the first time I was specifically asked by the nurse to confirm if I am / could possibly be pregnant.

I laughed as I thought she was joking as I felt it was obvious I am a biological male and therefore could not possibly be pregnant, but she told me they were "inclusive" and had to confirm.

This was in Scotland at a regular blood donor clinic.

Am I just out of touch with the times or is the world gone man? I can confirmed that I am a male yet am forced to answer this question in order to donate.

That rather contradicts the information given earlier.

A 20 year old female gets her records changed to state "male". As she won't yet have had any smear tests she wouldn't be on any list of previous patients, if such a list is how further smears are arranged. Will she automatically be prompted to book a test or not?

Whoops, cross-posted. This thread moves faster than I can keep up

Wishi - some questions for you, as, like the OP, I'm very concerned at the way that the NHS seems to be trying to write biological sex out of the NHS.

You have suggested above that, although slightly inconvenient and indeed silly-sounding, to ask adult males if they could be pregnant, that it is worth it, to reduce a (small) potential risk that a potential blood donor may be pregnant without the system being aware of it.

However, that is not the only risk. The current approach increases the likelihood of several other potential risks. Could you please give your thoughts on the following risks, and explain how the NHS, and you as a practitioner, view these alternative risks, which are a direct consequence of the approach the NHS has taken on this issue?

1. Blood donations go down, as people are put off by being asked if they're pregnant
2. Trans-identified male patients who come in to get a blood donation are given the wrong blood i.e. blood from recently-pregnant females, because both the patient's medical records and probably the patient themselves (if they are well enough to talk) state that they are female - they then get very ill or die
3. Trans-identified female blood donors with gender dysphoria lie about pregnancy history when asked (a not unlikely scenario for someone with gender dysphoria) - any male patient receiving their blood then likewise gets very ill or dies.

Also wondering about the following risks:

1. How do you currently determine if a potential blood donor has hiv, cancer or hepatitis? Or had anal sex? Do you ask them a question and rely on them to tell the truth? If so, is this a fully reliable method? As reliable as being able to refer to correct, unalterable medical records?
2. Given the way that biological sex impacts pretty much every aspect of a person's health profoundly, whose responsibility will it be when an increasing number of trans people start dying young of avoidable causes, such as those trans-identified females who are no longer invited to smear tests? Will the NHS be recording the increase in cervical cancer death rates for these females compared to females who have not changed the sex marker on their NHS record? Where do you feel your personal responsibility lies?

Particularly interested to hear why only one risk has been regarded as most significant, while someone/s has made a decision to ignore all the other risks. Can you - or any other poster - clarify who took the decision that sex markers on NHS records should be changeable, and what governance was gone through to sign this off? What risk assessments were done?

To me, it seems clear that women are already receive sub-standard healthcare compared to men, by virtue of the male being seen as the default human. See Invisible Women for more graphic and shocking details.) Moving towards a system where sex differences are brushed even more under the carpet as something that cannot publicly be discussed in the NHS, is only going to harm women's health even further.

And Wishi, in particular on point 3:

Who thought it was a good idea to make the whole system rely on a box-ticking question which was least likely to be answered truthfully by the people for whom is was primarily designed??! As it could obviously be guessed that asking people with strong gender dysphoria if they were or had previously been pregnant was going to be a really uncomfortable question for them to have to answer truthfully in public!

And yet they are the very people this entire ridiculous exercise has supposedly been invented to fit around!

Nothing to state what happens if they lie - as apparently there are no ways of checking the answers they give are true using the records, as the records have now been fictionalised.

Just how does any of this make sense??

I don't understand. Why would age have anything to do with a man's confidence in his knowledge of his sex? Don't most males know this around age 4 or 5?

It's crap and it isn't 'inclusive' a transwomen cannot be pregnant so being asked could be triggering.

BTW OP In a few weeks if Nicola Sturgeon has her way you can legally be a woman by saying so.

The thing is, these issues ultimately arise due to political pressure. Yes, gender dysphoria may be a medical issue but the wider project to reorganise society along the lines of ‘gender’ is a political movement.

Healthcare has been politicised and therefore, healthcare professionals can’t be surprised if patients respond to this in a certain way. It’s not about being personally offended, it is about resisting political indoctrination on a society-wide level.

If you think people have never stood up for their political beliefs because things would run more smoothly if they just shut up, you are politically naive. Societies have gone to war over religious questions or questions of ‘national honour’, and wasted millions of lives that way.

This is absolutely bizarre, for the simple reason that your medical history should have been thoroughly checked before you donate blood.

They should know if you have been through any surgeries etc. related to gender dysphoria.

Assuming they know this, they should not have to ask if there's a possibility you could be pregnant.

I also can't see any reason why they'd be suddenly starting to ask this to loads of men who've been donating for years. Do they not have records making it clear that these people whose male blood they've been taking and using for years are still male (whatever irrelevant gender identity they may have developed since their last trip to donate blood)? So why can't they just keep these records and then no need to annoy regular donors like the OP?

Also wondering what happens about donor blood full of (possibly illegally-obtained) cross-sex hormones? Does anyone know what effect that might have on those receiving the blood? Is it checked for? How, if the donor isn't asked about it, and the drugs may not have been prescribed in the UK, could the NHS know?

Wishiwasatailor
Part of the issue is that if they don’t believe in their biological sex then their identifying sex is their “real” sex. Once they are 18 they can legally change their sex on medical records and are given a new nhs no. Transmen are then no longer invited to smears.

Wishi, is this correct? A Transman will no longer get called for cervical smear tests, because the system now registers them as male, so if they have a cervix, which many transmen will, any cancerous changes won’t be picked up.

Yes😂

They knew you were a man because they only asked once. When they ask women and women answer, they ignore the first answer and treat it as a lie and always ask again because women are assumed to be lying about it. A man's first answer is accepted as truth; a woman's answer is not.

I doubt that scotblood are silently pushing anything. There are women who are offended and upset by being asked this question. But now some men are upset it must be a conspiracy. My mum is 74 and still gives blood, there’s no way she looks like she’s getting pregnant any time soon but do you know what she just says no in response to the question. Trans males have been known to get pregnant. I don’t know your sexual orientation but if you’re heterosexual do the questions asking whether you have had sex with another man offend you? If you’re so horrified by the question don’t answer it and stop donating.

Trans males have been known to get pregnant

What?

It's hard to get one's head round.

Charitably, perhaps it's not so much Scotblood pushing doctrine in itself as trying to respond towhat's actually happening in the world, where people who present as male have nevertheless been pregnant and borne children. Freddy McC isn't the only one, just one of the most prominent.

World gone man, indeed.
www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/20/the-dad-who-gave-birth-pregnant-trans-freddy-mcconnell

My DH was asked before getting an xray. Not only is he biologically male he is also nearly 70. He laughed and commiserated with the staff for having to ask such a stupid question. He is aware why as I am a massive lurker on these boards and had already told him this madness.

Perhaps pregnant women should start identifying as not pregnant when giving blood.
If biological reality is now secondary to feelz, I think this is the way to go.

See what happens.

Trans men are biological women
Why they would be getting pregnant when anything womanly causes dysphoria is a mystery!

How on earth is sex "assigned at birth"?! Please don't use such ridiculous terminology. Sex is not a choice, the midwife doesn't pick a sex from the sorting hat when a baby is born.

If sex was assigned and therefore a choice, millions of newborn baby girls wouldn't have their throats cut at birth for the crime of being female. How insulting to insinuate there is any choice in the matter.

How insulting to insinuate there is any choice in the matter.

Ah, but your opinion doesn't matter as much as the special people who get this treatment: "you need to comply with what is going on and getting their back up because they think I’m not accepting is not helpful".

It's absolutely fine to get certain people's backs up.

@xxyzz i don’t know the answers to all yours questions as I did not personally set up the system or change it, I just work within it and try my best to do it in a way that keeps my patient and myself safe.

I do know that blood is screened for hiv hep and other viruses so as not to infect others. by asking the questions prior to donation it reduces the amount of unsuitably donations therefore reducing waste and costs.

@Delphinium20 this was in relation to a comment about medical staff not being immediately certain of the sex of an unconscious patient arriving to a&e. An old man? They can be confident he’s a man. A 20y man there’s the potential he’s a trans man.

@KCandtheSunlightBand yes see the link below regarding screening and trans
www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-population-screening-information-for-transgender-people/nhs-population-screening-information-for-trans-people#cervical-screening

@Typo22 ive addressed that several times. I will be using birth sex going forward

Wtf!
How on earth would you know if donated blood came from a male or female?!