Allow Male Workers to perform mammograms and breast screening

[CrakdEgg]

OK, so the Society & College of Radiographers have their annual delegates conference, where members bring forward motions for the union to lobby on.
In the past they have passed motions to 'remove gendered language' from health communications for inclusivity - you know, 'pregnant people' and the like. They then lobby behind the scenes to the Government to follow these requests.

This year we have this motion -

Allow Male Workers to Perform Mammograms

Workforce shortages: there are 15 posts for mammographers on NHS jobs. In the UK.

But are we bothered? Do we not want males in this space, or does it not matter because we have male gynaecologists? Or will it dissuade women from attending?

I am interested to hear other people's opinions. My instincts say 'no way Jose', but I am interested in keeping males out of female spaces, so I accept my bias.

Thoughts?

First time I had it done, I didn't realise that you should probably reschedule if you have a period - more painful, apparently. Mind you, at that time of life I never knew when it would appear.

I remember wondering whether they'd be permanently out of shape...

Not to mention the extra cost of treating the increase in breast cancer cases, because more women will be afraid to go.

The timing of this announcement is very suspicious IMO

Well said.

This isn’t treatment, and not about watingvtimes. This is routine screening. No waiting times as such. You’re on a rota based on every 3 years.

No, never, definitely not. Faced with a male planning to manipulate my breasts I would leave the screening centre. I'm sure I'm not alone.

I'm really sorry you experienced awful female health workers: I fully empathise. I've had my fair share of female sadists, too (hence my other comment).
I still maintain my opinion on men in certain positions, and it's a very thought out and firm one. It is a very complex matter, though.

Can anyone remember any publicity on the BBC or anywhere else, chatting casually about a motion brought at the Society of Radiographers conference, ever?

For those who've never yet had a mammogram, it's hard to describe why it's so intensely intimate. You're so close, face-to-face, hands everywhere. Tbh you'd usually be snogging anyone handling your breasts like this. And it's way, way different in a carpark van compared to a hospital breast clinic. Male staff in a clinic environment, yes (and they're always chaperoned). Lone-working male in a mobile screening unit, absolutely not. And they'd have to be chaperoned anyway, so it would need additional staff. It may hard to credit that it's more up-close-and-personal than a gynae exam, but it really is. (Btw, you get called by postcode, so if you live in a village, you may well be in that van with your neighbours. Absolutely women-only in the vans, staff and patients.) I'm pretty sure transmen get theirs in clinics? (which have loads of men around, staff, supporters and patients).

I was listening to a discussion on this topic this afternoon. I have had breast cancer so a number of mammograms, examinations etc. all mammograms have been carried out by women but examinations generally by men but I honestly wouldn’t have a problem with a male radiographer. In medical settings I just see a clinical professional not a man or a woman.

Even if she is particularly stupid, at least she's not particularly rude.

She is also a he…

No periods here due to mini pill or menopause I have no idea

Chaperones thst are not HCP don’t know what is acceptable and what isn’t . They just rely on being present would stop stuff, and frankly having one person looking at me in exposed position is bad enough, I don’t need to feel like I’m exhibition of the day

my first smear test , 40 plus years ago, was done by male Gp…chaperone present…he hurt me and was brutal..took him over 5 minutes rammingvthe speculum into me repeatedly saying he couldn’t find my cervex like it was my fault.…I then got a lecture about needing to get pregnant and have children before I was 25, I was 21 fgs. And still with him at the business end with legs akimbo. He was asking about my sexual partner and then he insisted on doing breast exam to top it all off…chaperone stood there doing nowt, even though I was clearly distressed and mortified

has a chaperone ever stepped in to prevent those sexual assaults ..if the followin csn happen in hospitals where other staff are around, what is gointo happen in a small trailer ?

“Professor Phoenix found that more than 6,500 rapes and sexual assaults had been committed in hospitals in England and Wales over a period of nearly four years. Some were against children under 13, yet in a mere 265 cases—a minute 4.1%—was anyone known to have been charged. In total, 2,088 rapes and 4,451 sexual assaults—6,539 cases—were recorded by police forces from January 2019, and one in seven of those, or 266 a year, took place on hospital wards. As the researchers at the Women’s Rights Network sent freedom of information requests to 43 police forces across the UK and 35 responded, the figures are, in truth, even higher and even more shocking.”

It’s a bloke..mansplaining women …go read original post…,

are you assuming someone's pronouns?😂😂😂

I couldn’t care less if it was a male. Why are boobs still the fuck sexualised in any case?!

What?! I’ve had loads of mammograms and have never had hands everywhere in a snogging position?!

It’s more the very clinical manoeuvring of a body part to get squished in a machine. That’s the only thing that could be potentially triggering I guess, but there would still be a choice to have a female.

What about all the transvaginal scans done by men anyway? Had loads of them too and the men have been very good. Not triggering for me and far preferable to being in an endless list and having cancer caught too late

I still get that rising sense of panic when I'm clamped in the vice and can't move an inch even if I wanted to. I don't think I'm a flaky person but it's so exposing. It's only the staff being nice and the space so private that makes it bearable.

It's in a garden centre car park near here. The car park is L shape and the entire mammogram unit is not visible from the garden centre itself.

Round here they are certainly not parked in isolated places. I wonder if addressing that would improve uptake?....not acceptance of male clinicians but uptake in general.

I have had many mammograms and lots of good sex and can honestly say that in romantic circumstances, if any man had handled my breasts like a mammographer, they would have got no further as a minimum. Yes you get touched above the waist A LOT but I don't recognise the description of "face to face, hands everywhere"

I may be cynical but the more I think about this I don't think it's a coincidence when we've won our right back to single sex spaces in the Supreme Court that they come after one of the few services that has always been single sex. If it's not deliberate it's just plain stupid.

Breasts are very important female secondary sexual characteristics, so are naturally sexually attractive, mostly to men, even though their primary function is to nourish offspring. Of course they’re sexualised, to a degree. Unfortunately, this can make women uncomfortable, and for some men it goes too far, breasts becoming an obsession, or a fetish.

It’s certainly a reason why I would be mistrustful of a man who actively chose a profession that involved spending much of his time manipulating women’s breasts and sometimes causing them pain.