Small NHS victory - posted to celebrate and encourage others

[IwantToRetire]

One of the hospital clinics I attend at various intervals always sends out a satisfaction survey.

So I got one this morning and completed it (because I do feel it is worth giving feedback on how sucessful appointments have been etc.).

So this time I got the end and what did I find?

A question about my biological sex - and they made it clear they meant sex.

And then a question about did I have a gender identity. Option No included.

So I can first remember complaining to this particular Trust about only having a question about gender years ago, and got some waffle back about them having it because they were part of some European health network who set the guidelines for collecting data.

So on each satisfaction survey since then for the gender question I have ticked perfer not to say and then added a comment at the end.

And now, some years later, change has happened.

Not claiming it was my lone voice, but am certain that because many other woman have similarly commented, and public discussion about valid data, has made them change their minds.

So it just means they have 4 or 5 or maybe more years of useless data.

So thanks to everyone (and me!) for persisting.

Well done, good news!

That's great news! Always good to see small bits of sanity.

Excellent - it's good to see sanity s-l-o-w-l-y reasserting itself.

Hopefully there are others who have had a tiny win like this.

Great to here, even if only able to now be able to have the converstaion that there is a difference between sex and gender identity.

Excellent, good to see this. Bit by bit!

That is so good to hear! We have been pushing on this giant boulder for a long time, and finally it is moving a little. So let's keep pushing.

Nice! That is really good news.

ooops - Great to here = Great to hear (from others ... )

thats good news
I was asked to do a survey for my surgery about 'access to sexual health services' which turned out to be about Prep (as someone in along term heterosexual monogamous relationship this has no relevance to me)
and their 'gender' options were-
woman (including transwoman)
man (including transman)
non binary
other
so I ticked other and told them their data will be useless

Good for you!

It's become so political it's literally insane what they come up with.

Small steps in returning the NHS to focus on facts and medical science. Well done OP.

Well done. I will continue to scribble on nonsensical forms in the hope they also get changed!

thanks for the update

Not the NHS but heard from a friend who received a Jury Summons.

Apparently they do ask your sex, and then if your gender identity is the same as your sex.

But is seems on the gender question the answers allowed are:
Yes
No
Prefer not to say
and no oprtion to say I dont have a gender.

I cant remember but in fact is that what the Census did and in fact it was found to have produced unreliable data.

In which case this isn't a good news story.

I have to say I find it inappropriate to ask anyone their biological sex unless absolutely necessary, eg for medical purposes. I find misgendering myself in that way deeply uncomfortable.

Well, don't ask, then.

@AlphaTransWoman it's really important to record bio sex data because women and men have different needs based on their physical differences. It's also really important to record, for example where crimes are committed, so that we keep a sense of realism as regards to potential risks posed by either sex.

I do think it's also important to record gender identity alongside this. With an option to say not applicable because most people don't have one..

Your comfort is really not as important as all the above.

I find it inappropriate to ask me my gender, when gender is a load of sexist stereotypes, whereas my sex is relevant to most situations. Not just medical ones.

Why?

Simply because for no other reason the world is designed to default male requirements rather than for women.

If the world were designed with women in mind, door handles would be lower, mobile phones would be smaller.... invisible woman is a great fucking book.

I have to say the sheer entitlement of saying you don't like being asked your sex really spells out how you have no idea how sex affects womens' every day lives in the most mundane ways. And how you think we should all do things your way cos you know best and we should all obey.

But y'know if you can't see sex, you can't see sexism. That's kinda the point for you though isn't it? You can't be held accountable for your sexism...

There are a whole bunch of really valid and important reasons to record sex. It is the very height of sexism to be oblivious to these reasons.

If you want an option to record your gender belief then I've no issue with that, as long as it's ok for me to also have an option that I don't share in this belief and don't believe in having a gender identity because I don't believe in sexism, without being hounded for it.

In short: It's. Not. All. About. You.

Every survey I do , I wedge in a comment such as gender is a misogynistic social construct. Or keep prisons single sex. Or trans woman are men.

i how that the people who want to know about their customers pay attention to it
well done OP

I can understand that. I remember a thread during the last census where a trans woman wrote that she would find it really difficult to describe herself as “male”, but that selecting “male” as her birth sex wasn’t too bad.

I’m wondering if we can do better than the phrase “assigned at birth”, though. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought this dated back to the days when babies born with ambiguous genitalia were “assigned” a sex by doctors based on what physical appearance could be achieved by surgery.

Now that most doctors have access to ultrasound scans and chromosome tests and are aware that adults with DSDs often regret the surgery they underwent in childhood to “normalise” their appearance, does this phrase still make sense?

Ok it’s fine to insult millions of women with gender guff, as long as the sacred caste don’t get hurty feels

@Cattenberg
I’m wondering if we can do better than the phrase “assigned at birth”, though. Please correct me if I’m wrong,
We can!! It's observed at birth not assigned. No sorting hat needed. It's really easy!

I have to say I find it inappropriate to ask anyone their biological sex unless absolutely necessary, eg for medical purposes

Clearly you dont understand the purposes of collecting data as part of an exercise to ensure, whether Juries, or any other group is representative of the population in the country.

Maybe one day of of this will be irrelevant because we will all identify as asexual blobs or amoebas

I find being asked for my “gender” and “gender identity” really uncomfortable because I don’t have either and despise being forced into stating something that is literally a lie.

The fact that you find stating reality difficult suggests that the medical treatment you are receiving isn’t adequate as it doesn’t allow you to live comfortably with the world as it is, rather than as you wish it was. Perhaps you need a new therapist to help you come to terms with your continued fear of who you actually are?

This interaction has led me to some other 5am thoughts.

Firstly, I forgot to say thank you and congratulations to @IwantToRetire and all the rest of us carrying out this slow campaign. I’ve long thought that part of the problem we face is how loudly transactivists shout for what they want to see and persistence in objecting is the only way this will be resolved.

The other is that, in attempting to “cure” gender dysphoria by avoiding telling a tiny number of people the truth or insisting that they face up to the truth, the rest of us are expected to enter into an equivalent mental state, where we are the ones continually faced with having to tell what we see as lies about ourselves.

The cure for a sickness should never, ever require the entire world to lie, to be “kind” or otherwise. It’s simply not sustainable. And ultimately it’s not kind either, because you can’t control the entire world. This then leads those with dysphoria still in a permanent state of worry about being correctly sexed while still leaving the rest of us deeply troubled because we are being forced into a situation we recognize does not reflect reality.