NHS still asking men if they're pregnant

[lcakethereforeIam]

I know there have been previous threads but I cannot find them. New article in the Telegraph

https://archive.ph/XYrD5 Bypass paywall

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/10/nhs-staff-asking-men-if-pregnant-before-x-ray-scans/

I'd seriously have dented confidence in the competence of any medical staff who just blindly follow this nonsense.

Edited to add link and arrrggghhhh!

I posted this just the other day, but it’s always worth repeating.

When any man is asked if he could be pregnant he should reply: “I’m not sure as I had unprotected sex recently. Is there a test we could do?”

See how they react when the insanity is pushed back at them.

This could easily be avoided by recording the patient’s sex correctly. If they want to add gender identity then OK, but the important thing as far as their medical care is concerned is their sex.

We all need to do this.
Asking stupid questions like this suggests that medics lack training and scientific knowledge. It undermines them in the eyes of the public at a time when our faltering health service needs public support - not ridicule.

Absolutely. But the response could well be 'I need a negative pregnancy test, sir'.

This is the reality. If healthcare workers HAVE to ask, they have to act on the response. If you, as a bloke, wisecrack (as I bet most of us would be tempted!); they're within their rights to demand a negative pregnancy test from men.

HCPs don't write the rules, but are forced to abide by them due to some blue-haired non-binary in their professional body.

Men failing to stand up to this nonsense is why we're here.

I am one of the unfortunate HCPs in the position of having to ask men if they are pregnant. The question is usually, unsurprisingly, met with derision. Only once has a patient replied "Well I don't know - I might be." I explained that we are required to ensure he is not pregnant and if we're unable to confirm that we can't do his test. I really hoped he would stick to his guns so that I could go back to my seniors and say "What now?" (Because I guarantee they haven't thought this through.) Sadly, he caved.

But we really need men to take the piss because this policy is wasting everybody's time and it doesn't solve the actual problem, which is that the sex field on patient records is being completed with gender identity instead of sex.

I can see your male patient's point of view @HearMeSnore, because if he were to play this game he might have to make another appointment for a (much) later date, which nobody really wants to do.

HCPs have a duty to use NHS resources carefully so I'm not sure where that would sit with doing a pregnancy test on a man.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Unfortunately I've heard of a trans identified woman who lost an ovary after presenting with abdominal pain which was misdiagnosed as appendicitis).

As they were "male" the differential diagnosis of ovarian torsion wasn't considered and was only identified at delayed laparoscopy (It's safe to wait to operate on an appendix. If ovarian torsion had been considered an US would have been carried out). The person who told me about this case said their true sex was only discovered when the team inserted a urinary catheter (routine for laparoscopy) pre-op and they had no penis.

There is also the case of the trans identified female who wasn't pregnancy tested before their gender re-assignment surgery in Australia.

I've also had to deal with a lengthy and involved complaint from a trans-identified woman who felt that being asked to comply with our pregnancy testing policy pre-surgery for women of child bearing age was discriminatory to her gender identity and transphobic. The fact that trans identified women in a US cohort have a higher rate of unplanned pregnancy than an age matched non trans cohort didn't cut the mustard as an initial explanation.

So I can see why some trusts have decided to just ask everyone. Less chance of making a mistake.

It's like the old woman who swallowed a fly, isn't it?

Recording the sex of the patient avoids all that. You have it on their notes, you don't have to mention sex to them but you know which tests and additional questions are appropriate.

I wouldn’t mind so much but at my recent smear test the nurse said “and of course you won’t be pregnant at 50”. I didn’t even get the question! Why are they not getting “and of course you won’t be pregnant, being a man and all”?

@Rightsraptor I have wondered the same thing. According to our policy, if we are unable to confirm a patient is not pregnant we have to send them to another department to get a pregnancy test done.

I don't think this other department has been informed that they may be asked to perform pregnancy tests on males.

And I'm certain that nobody has considered what we should do if one such comes back positive. Obviously it wouldn't mean that he's pregnant, but it might mean that he has testicular cancer. So how would that help us decide whether to do the test? And more to the point, who's going to tell him he needs a testicular ultrasound?

The Times has reported the Telegraph article, good to see articles making knowledge of this nonsense a little more widespread

https://archive.ph/YHHyy click here only if you can read, although if you can't I apologise for asking you in text...and for apologising in text

www.thetimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/article/nhs-radiographers-told-check-if-men-are-pregnant-jxxls3gvg

I think I've given my opinion on this on a previous thread. But, I don't think this is about gender identity ideology. I think this is about warming us up to have AI do our triage and treatment prep.
The medical and nursing staff now are unable to use any initiative, they have to ask the questions exactly as they're written on the box. Not even the miniscule ounce of initiative involved in determining that a male person doesn't need to confirm they're not pregnant. So with these constraints in place there's no difference between a (constrained) human clinician and machine intelligence doing the assessments.

Oh, dear.

Follow up opinion article in the Telegraph

https://archive.ph/Jj9QZ paywall jump. Go on you can do it, yay!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/08/12/nhs-inclusivity-guidance-trans-men-x-ray/

I don't recall the NHS being concerned about my feelings when i was called 'geriatric' because i was pregnant at the ripe old age of 36! I got over it.

Reminds me of this from yonks ago; it may have been Florynce Kennedy not GS who said it first.

It would seem pretty obvious to mention your biological sex to a doctor 🙄

Absolutely fucking BONKERS.

Pregnancy has nothing to do with gender identity. Its specific to females. No male in history has ever been pregnant! So just ask for a person's sex, rather than gender identity as that's irrelevant information when it comes to pregnancy.
How is the radiologist knew it they were a 'man' yet didn't know they were biologically female and capable of becoming pregnant??
Dont ask a sex specific question to the many genders people can 'identify' as. Ask the question to the hroup of people that pregnancy is specific to.
AS a transgender male that person definately had to have had the type of intimate transaction that made them pregnant. So they certainly knew they are female and had relations and the equipment that could result in a female getting pregnant.
So the issue here is, why are you asking 'men' and 'women' rather than asking 'females'
It's a medical setting and this highlights why sex matters in medical settings.
How did they know it was a 'man' (so didnt think to ask based on that information, that they somehow DID know) yet not know they were a female (so would have known to ask based on that information, but that they somehow DIDNT know!)
This is stark reminder of how putting the importance of gender over the importance of sex can do more harm than good to the very people that continue to push for such.
Of course there are important differences between the sexes and thats important to recognise so as to benefit every group of people.
Different isn't 'better' or 'less than' as I'm continually being told. It's What equality is based upon
Had that person been treated in a medical setting based on the differences that a female has as opposed to a male (ie: pregnancy) instead of inclusive gender ideology. This wouldn't have happened.
They would have been treated with the same care as every other female who could be pregnant is treated and not as a male, who wouldn't have been at any such risk of bring pregnant. That's equality.
Equality and Equity are two different things. We are not 'all the same' but our known differences, mean rach group will recieve equally good medical care, based upon the needs those differences require.

I think I'll start, with a straight face, asking boys or men if they're pregnant!

I’ve seen plenty of beer bellies that could be mistaken for an eight or nine month pregnancy, at a glance.

I’d love one to response “I’m not sure - How would I tell ?”

Nonsense, very simple computer software will ask for sex of the patient first and then filter out questions accordingly.

That's an idea. Let's have a day of assuming all men who LOOK possibly pregnant ARE pregnant and offer them seats and ask when they're due and do they know if they're having a hap or a nap!