MN promoting cervical screening. Guess which word is missing

[HermioneWeasley]

It’s being promoted on MN, later on they say you’ll usually have a female nurse do it, but it’s all about PEOPLE

https://www.mumsnet.com/articles/cervical-screening

@MNHQ why are you colluding with this woman erasing nonsense?

It also just talks about those living in England .

@mnhq out of those 3.4 million people how many of them were women?

Could you clarify? I'm just wondering if the numbers are skewed by the sex class men who don't produce a large gamete, have a female reproductive system and therefore no cervix?

Are the 3 in 10 that rejected the offer of the sex class men who produce small gametes, and contain a male reproductive system?

Please offer more specific information.

Oh for goodness sake

What fucks me off is the reasons that women delay/ miss smears are often very linked to the fact of them being women.

Like having been raped or sexually assaulted in the past, or having been socialised to feel shame in their genitals, or having had their symptoms and pain dismissed by doctors.

Erasing the word women erases the ability to fully acknowledge all that to.

@MNHQ doesn't work. You need to email [email protected] or report the thread to attract their attention.

It looks like branded content from NHS and not under MNHQ control.

NHS is a captured organisation that is more concerned about being a Stonewall ally than paying true attention to diversity or the literacy level of those whom it hopes to reach.

The constant complaining on this site about saying "people" instead of "women" makes me more careful to say "people".

Don't you know intersex people exist? Google it. Women isn't even perfectly accurate in this context. Same with "pregnant people" which is more accurate than "pregnant women." It's not even all about gender identity. It's just plain old science.

Being inclusive isn't bad and it doesn't hurt anyone. Women aren't erased by being inclusive of others. Not everything has to be about you specifically. Get over it.

Women is accurate!

You think you are being clever and kind and inclusive by using people when you mean women but you aren't.

It is so important to communicate clearly. There are women who won't know this message is aimed at them unless it speaks directly to them as women and doesn't rely on them knowing which "people" have a cervix.

Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert) said that when they created form letters for one of their earlier consumer campaigns they were taken aback by how many people weren't able to progress to the next stage because they didn't know to or forgot to replace the [your details] sections with their own info. They had taken it for granted that people understood how a form letter worked.

It is so important to genuine inclusivity to be as straightforward as possible.

It's no good sneering at people who don't understand your clever newspeak. Where you say "people" but expect everyone to understand you mean the "people-formally-known-as women". Their healthcare matters too.

If TRAs actually gave a shit about whether transmen were included in smear tests then they wouldn't have campaigned to change their sex marker on their NHS records. Also I would think that the vast majority of transmen know that advertising reminding women to attend their smear tests doesn't have to revolve around their minority gender identity because it's not all about them and they will get over it. As you so wisely pointed out.

"Intersex" people know whether they are men or women with DSDs. You know that right? Even in situations where their sex wasn't immediately obvious at birth, they will know as adults of smear testing age whether they'll have male or female medical care needs.

It does hurt. It hurts all the people who read such ads and don’t realise cervical cancer is fro them. Women is simple and easy, women communicates to the right subset of people that this is a test they need. If you want to make it welcoming for transmen you can say women and …. If you want to harm health outcomes, by all means obfuscate the language and pretend that’s inclusive.

How is saying "pregnant people" more accurate? Only women can have babies.

Intersex is an outdated term, btw. People with DSDs do not produce third gametes and are either one sex or the other.

I’ve reported the OP saying that I agree with it 100% and the article should be edited to use the words woman/women throughout.

Thanks for flagging it up (I see the article was created by the NHS so I’m not really surprised).

Hear, hear. All these women do go on and on about being women, especially on the feminism board. We live in a society where men rule. Get over it.

As a woman who contracted HPV because the man who I had insisted on using a condom with later went in again without one I really feel my sex is relevant to the whole thing.

It's also relevant when I am ignored or sneered at when I say I want a small speculum because the big ones hurt. Or when I am berated for flinching or crying out when it does hurt. My sex is relevant when it comes to the pain that lasts at least the rest of the day and the bleeding that lasts longer and the fact that when I complain I'm told it's part of being a woman. Even though the one and only time I had a gynecologist who listed to me do one there was no pain or bleeding.

Does anyone know how a smear that tests for HPV and not cell changes is useful when it relies on an infection that comes and goes being active on one particular day in a 3 year period? Not understanding this on top of all the other stuff is putting me off going.

Any use of the word people immediately renders their statistic (3 in 10) unclear.

Do they mean 3 in 10 women or 3 in 10 people? Those are different.

It's the casual disdain for accuracy as well as the great points other people have made about clarity of messaging.

“Not everything is about you.”

Given that 100% of those going for cervical screening are female, I’d say this really is about us - women and girls. Only a tiny, tiny minority will have transgender identities and they’ll be well aware that they’re female. You can’t be transgender without realising what sex you are!

@helenwaspushed so you're saying there are people with a DSD who don't present as, or know that they are women, but have a cervix and presumably also a vagina as otherwise it would be impossible to do a standard cervical smear? Can you tell us how many non-women that condition affects?

Your experience sounds horrendous Magenta. 💐 You can ask if you can insert the speculum yourself, if that helps. Alternatively you can buy a self-test kit from Superdrug to find out if you have HPV. If it comes back HPV positive you can then book a smear test.

Apparently the NHS discards cervical samples without any further testing if no HPV is present.

The NHS in the four countries of the UK are separate entities and have different rules, e.g, screening frequency is different in NI.

Quick question - if we call everyone 'people', then how does anyone even know they have a cervix?

Thank you OP. I'm going to dig out the NHS complaints form to complain about this. We fought the battle of clarity decades ago but TRAs have sidelined this - many people cannot read English to an appropriate level, some rely on their children to translate. Any NHS adverts should be comprehensible by a smart 8 year old. This would have that kid sending in their dad.

People with DSDs are still male or female. Turner Syndrome is a DSD that affects women @helenwaspushed . Klinefelter syndrome affects men. "Intersex" as pp says is not a clinical term and is not an accurate description, hence why (most) institutions have dropped it.

use of the word “women” is critical here.

women without a cervix - those who have had it removed as part of treatment for pre cancerous cells or cancer - and who are therefore at significant risk also require screening under this programme.

Using mealy mouthed language “people with a cervix” excludes that category, to potentially devastating effect.

God some people have too much time on their hands. Why not do something productive with your life.