Macmillan Cancer Support leaflet aimed at trans patients: "regressive, unscientific and generally very poor advice" says nurse

[IwantToRetire]

(Some may find this article distressing to read if they or friends or family have suffered from cancer.)

The leaflet, titled “LGBTQ+ people and cancer”, is produced by Macmillan Cancer Support in partnership with a group called “Outpatients”. It is quite possibly one of the most offensive pieces of healthcare literature, amended to include people who “identify as” the opposite sex, that I have seen thus far.

" ... Your team will talk to you about where you will stay. Hospital wards may be single sex or mixed. Where you stay should give you privacy and keep you safe. If the hospital has single-sex wards you will usually be able to stay in a ward which matches the gender you identify with.

" ... Some health conditions are still often treated in clinics that are gendered. For example, if you have a problem affecting the vagina or nearby pelvic areas, you may have an appointment at a women’s health clinic. A problem affecting the prostate, you may be given an appointment at a clinic for men. These clinics can be difficult to cope with if your gender identity does not reflect the sex you were assigned at birth.

" ... If you were assigned male at birth and have had genital reconstructive surgery. If you have had surgery to make a vagina, the risks of cancer in this area are thought to be low. You do not have a cervix and do not need to go for cervical screening (a smear test).

" ... Sometimes surgery to treat cancer is also gender-affirming. Surgery to remove the cancer may remove a body part that you prefer not to have anyway.

Extracts only - full article at https://thecritic.co.uk/gender-identity-ideology-is-undermining-healthcare/

@MissingLynks thank you for your contributions on this thread. As a person who forms part of the target audience for the leaflet in question, your insights have been so helpful.

I hope that having had treatment you are now well.

@XChrome

"If you're going to get pissy about the words "fresh hell" you're getting offended just for the sake of it. I'm not playing that game."

Also some Olympic level passive aggression in "But hey, you obviously are looking for reasons to be offended, so I'm sure you'll invent something else that I didn't say in order to justify it."

HTH.

I meant your impression of my intentions, clearly. That has nothing to do with your experiences, since you have no prior experience with me.

I'm fully aware you'd rather be talking about me, not to me,

Another unfounded accusation. I've been talking to you, and have been tolerant of these repeated passive-aggressive personal attacks. If I hadn't wanted to talk to you, I wouldn't have. I tried to explain where I was coming from, but you simply would not listen, so what's the point? You have been talking at me, not to me, apparently not heeding a word I say.

rather than just entrenching their own prejudices and assumptions

Yet another passive-aggressive slap. 🙄

I no longer want to talk to you, but that is because of your continued false accusations such as the above, not because your experiences do not interest me. It is not reasonable to repeatedly get insultingly personal with somebody and then complain when that person doesn't want to talk to you anymore.
Happy trails and I hope you learn conversational give and take someday.

Fucking hell. Motes and beams.

Thank you for your insights and sharing your story @MissingLynks

I think the concern for many women is not about trans per se, and certainly not trans men. This really isn’t about transphobia. It is about the dignity and safety of women being stomped on for the benefit of men.

Men are the sex class who are responsible for most violent and sexual crime. Men are the sex class with the dominant physical power. And if the NHS just wave them on in when they say a magic password, we’re extremely vulnerable. And on a cancer ward, at our lowest ebb. It’s actually scary and unsettling that no one seems to care about our ‘safety and privacy’. Especially at a time when we’d need it the most.

That is rude because....?
The word "pissy?" It is entirely descriptive of the poster's peevish behaviour.

You obviously don't know what passive aggression is. That was a very direct statement, not veiled or put in passive language at all, and I had precedent for it. The poster was misrepresenting my words in order to have something to argue about. Repeatedly. I was accurately describing that behaviour. That this behaviour reflects badly on that person is not on me.

In answer to your question, I talk the same way to everybody. I casually use the f word as well as describing exactly what I'm seeing and not mincing words. 😱 I don't hold my teacup by my pinkie finger either.🤯 So on that you've got me. I'm not Miss Manners and I don't care. What I don't do (unlike the poster I was responding to) is make dishonest accusations as a form of personal attack. When I see people doing that, I lose respect for them, so yes, my manners (such as they are) will tend to slip.
Interesting that you apparently saw no rudeness in the repeated accusations that other poster made.
Do you have double standards for everybody, or just for "cisgendered" people?

I am a "cisgendered" person and no. I don't have double standards. I just have manners.

@MissingLynks Thank you — your contributions have been really useful and interesting. These posts always descend into whataboutery around made-up scenarios like trans women trying to access cervical smears, so it’s nice that to an extent this one has been more informative.

You certainly haven't shown them to me, so apparently they are conditional on whether or not you agree with people. So I would suggest you make an effort not to be this pious about manners in the future, since you do not apply them consistently. Rest assured that the virtue signal has been duly noted.

Thank you for your posts @MissingLynks They were informative and well stated. I think you demonstrated quite a bit of gumption posting here, and fwiw, it's very clear who is peevish and who is not.
'Think of the lurkers' and all that. I wish you all the best.