Boots menopause advice for "people with a vagina"

[Givemepickles]

On their menopause support page, where apparently they want to normalise the menopause...

https://www.boots.com/health-pharmacy/womenshealth/menopause-support

"The menopause is a natural process which people with a vagina go through as they get older however, in some cases, is medically induced. As oestrogen levels start to drop, periods become less frequent and eventually stop altogether. For some, their periods stop quickly, but for others, it can take a few months or a few years. Everyone is different.

Menopause signs and symptoms are different for everyone and usually begin between the ages of 45 and 55, with the average age for people in the UK being 51. Whilst some choose to seek treatment plans from their GP, others will look for other solutions to help manage signs & symptoms."

I'm so sick of this. I'm not defined by having a vagina! I am a woman. Piss off Boots.

Ah well.
That's another reason not to shop there.
That, and their awful website.

Complain. Write to the CEO. That’s the only way to stop this shit.

In any case, it’s also misleading as males who have undergone genital surgery resulting in a neo-vagina might well assume this applies to them.

Hey, Boots! Which people have a vagina? Is there a word for these people? I’d love to know.

Putting aside how screamingly offensive this “people with a vagina” nonsense is to the 51% who must not be named, how the feck is this murky, woolly, oh-so-virtuous messaging “inclusive”?

Not only does it exclude women from the very thing that affects them as females with female healthcare needs, but it also excludes a whole load of people who don’t speak English as their first language.

Do better, Boots.

I don't have anywhere else in my town except Superdrug which is as bad. If I don't shop there I can't get the products I need.

I filled in their feedback form on the page but doubt it'll make a difference.

Just read through the whole link and drop downs....not one mention of the word 'woman', instead it's 'people' or 'everyone'. What a fucking insult.

I'm so fucking sick of this shit. Sick & tired of it.

Also, people with CAIS and Swyer Syndrome have vaginas (albeit "blind" and often very short, for CAIS cases) but no ovaries. So no menopause.

So strictly speaking, it's anyone who ever had ovaries (not a vagina!) who has to consider menopause, either because the ovaries age or because they were removed.

I suppose the "plain English" question is, how many women know what a vagina is but not what ovaries are? And how many women just know the word "women" but recognise neither anatomical term, particularly non fluent English speakers?

There is btw a female DSD where a woman can have ovaries - but no uterus.

But ultimately any woman with a DSD should know about it well before the age of 40; people who are "living as the opposite sex" should be aware what their biological sex is and the implications of that, and if they don't, that is an essential problem with counselling and advice for that particular group alone.

Surely Boots have far more female ESL customers than trans customers?

It would be people with ovaries if you needed to be that much of a biologist about it, wouldn't it? Having a vagina or not wouldn't trigger menopause.
Obviously the correct word is women but if you were getting technical ...

Never mind the blatant disrespect, this isn't even logical. Vaginas may be affected by menopause but they don't cause menopause/play a central role in it. Couldn't they at least have made it people with ovaries?

I also wonder how they can blithely calculate an average menopause age for "people in the UK" when exactly half of that population won't go through it at all //wanders off in search of a statistics primer//.

I have a vagina. Have it 47 years now. It’s now menopausal.
It’s sore. It smells weird. It’s collapsing in places. It doesn’t do sex anymore… It bleeds every 3 weeks, as well.

Anyone who wants one, is welcome to mine!

Please could you let us know hit to contact the CEO if you know. I can’t find out on the website.

I haven’t been to Boots since it was discovered their morning after pill was £20 more expensive than other chemists and they were judgemental about women who needed it.

Such a shameful company.

Worth mentioning that they are excluding people with lower literacy levels, those with learning disabilities and also people with English as a second language. Not very inclusive, is it?

[email protected]

Just disgusting

I'm so sick and tired of this bs. It's so offensive.

Thank you.

https://www.boots-uk.com/newsroom/experts/sebastian-james/

I reckon it's [email protected] from googling

Such bullshit

This

I've emailed and I won't be buying from them again.

Good style, as every copywriter knows, is to be as clear and concise as possible. If you can say something in fewer words, do. 'Women and transmen' is three words. Superclear.

'People with a vagina' is four words and far less clear. Do transwomen with a cosmetically created vagina fall into this category or not?

But women are definitely not being erased oh no no no 🙄

Fuck off Boots basically

also interestingly look what is back on stonewall website

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/top-global-employers/full-list-top-global-employers

and note how many law firms are there

Why is Boots so terrified of offending transpeople but cares not at all about offending women? So sick of the double standards.

It doesn’t even make sense. The people experiencing menopause have wombs. Boots is adopting the porn-type language that defines women as whatever men can fuck. No one calls us clitoris-havers or womb-havers, it’s all about the vagina because this activism is all about misogynistic men.

Unfortunately, the pregnancy advice page is just as bad as the menopause one. I read every section, and could find no mention of the word woman/women/mother, only “pregnant people”, “some people” etc.

This is bad for my mental health, it just makes me so angry!

https://www.boots.com/healthhub/womens-health/pregnancy

So they place it under the "women's health" section of the website, but won't actually use the correct language on the page itself. Fucking woke twats.