NHS mammogram advice - “tell the staff your pronouns”

[Cantunseeit]

FFS why would telling staff your pronouns be relevant to an appointment where you’re physically there with the staff throughout? They never need to use pronouns as you’re right there!

This content was last reviewed in October 2025 so this drivel is still being produced / waved through by the NHS.

It also helpfully points out that ” If you wear a binder, you will need to remove it before having a mammogram.” No shit Sherlock

I’ve just had a mammogram and the patient before me had difficulty standing and didn’t have good English. Her son brought her and he was asked to wait outside to maintain a female only space. The staff were v kind and supportive throughout and went to find her son afterwards to make sure she was OK getting home. I feel that including irrelevant reference to pronouns somehow undermines a great and important service. Women going for a mammogram will have all number of questions and fears but I doubt pronouns are among them.

I might not have thought anything of this once upon a time but today it gives me the rage!

https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/breast-screening-mammogram/what-happens-at-your-breast-screening-appointment/

If it encourages women who identify as men to go for a screening I'm all for it. All women's health is important.

“It also helpfully points out that ” If you wear a binder, you will need to remove it before having a mammogram.” No shit Sherlock”

Sadly, I think there is an issue with basic understanding of what the process involves if someone thinks that they can have one wearing a binder. It is an indication that greater education is needed I would suggest.

I'm so fed up. This country is ridiculous

I was once helpfully informed by a pamphlet that I'd need to remove underwear for a smear test.

Never overestimate the comprehension of the average person on the street.

The navel-gazing silliness of the pronouns thing is just so irritating.
If you are right there in front of me, I am speaking directly to you and therefore dont need to know about your third person pronouns.
Of course, the whole thing goes way beyond silliness, it being a total misuse of language which has far wider effects.

I’m having a mammogram next week. I haven’t noticed this “advice”. I will look closer

I'm curious to know how many women of mammogrammable age are wearing binders

Of course it is a good thing for women who ID as men to get screening for the conditions that only women get [or overwhelmingly women in the case of breast cancer - I know some men get cancers in breast tissue].

It's debatable whether the small number of trans IDing women in the UK [probably less than 100,000 in a population of 70million+?] merits special attention at all, but if the NHS thinks they do, I think it would be fair enough to say something concise and easily understood like:
'If you are a woman who IDs as a man, breast screening is important for you too, and you will be treated with respect'

The pronouns/binder references seem coy and unclear to those unfamiliar with trans terminology.

It does add, 'if you would like to' after 'Tell the staff your pronouns', so it's not quite the blanket instruction I took it to be when I read the op.

It reads to me like a ham-fisted attempt to encourage transmen to attend and, if that's the case, I think they should be more direct, e.g.@MarieDeGournays suggestion.

I agree, but they probably want to avoid being accused of a hate crime.

Truth is Bigotry, remember!

If you are women of mamogrammable age then you've lived long enough to understand that you are actually a female, with a female body, regardless of how you wish to dress and identify.

But is there a problem here? Are there trans-identified women who aren't attending for mammograms because the language isn't 'inclusive' enough. Or that don't understand that whatever they identify as, they need to get their breasts checked?

I thought this too and is relevant if we're talking about routine screening mammograms aimed at us older women.

But then I thought about the damage binders do to breast tissue and now I have started wondering about that & mammograms. Would having previously bound breasts in one's adolescence and caused damage affect screenings in later life? Unknown so far, I'd imagine, but potentially disastrous.

I think it would be fair enough to say something concise and easily understood like:
'If you are a woman who IDs as a man, breast screening is important for you too, and you will be treated with respect'
The pronouns/binder references seem coy and unclear to those unfamiliar with trans terminology.
I completely agree. It's meant to clarify and include but it's actually potentially confusing and exclusionary.

It's not just older women who have to have mammograms. They are the main group, true, but younger women have them too when needed.

I would imagine a lot of people think a binder is an A4 ring binder not a niche bit of underwear.

It doesn’t contain any advice on breast implants, which is an initial concern for women who have them, and implants are more frequently seen than binders.

💯

The onus should be on the person requiring the accommodation (of someone else pretending that they are not female) to request the use of alternate, non sexed pronouns.

But that's literally what the website says. It says you can tell staff your pronouns if you want to.

I think it would be fair enough to say something concise and easily understood like:
'If you are a woman who IDs as a man, breast screening is important for you too, and you will be treated with respect'

I'm pretty sure the genderists would whinge that that is "othering".

Indeed.
People do come to the GP and are astounded that they may need to take some clothes off to be examined...

I can't bring myself to get worked up about this. The "tell us your pronouns" thing specifies "if you would like to", and it is the last bullet point in the list, coming below "ask staff not to use any phrases or words that make you uncomfortable or nervous", which is already quite niche.

The binder thing floats about on its own, outside of the main do's and don'ts lists, which allows the more mainstream "don't" to appear with uncluttered prominence.

It is natural to feel annoyed by even these small pieces of performative-and-probably-not-really-necessary gestures. But OTOH, if it is part of a process of making everyone feel comfortable as the over-accommodation of trans ideology recedes, then all is well, really.

If thinbgs continue to normalise over the years, I can see an NHS communications team somewhere down the line saying "Hang on, why do we have this info here, is it really needed?" and older heads will explain it as an anachronism hanging over from a weird era; then it will disappear.

I get that but why out of a list of 7 things to ‘Do’ is it necessary to mention pronouns and “phrases or words that make you uncomfortable or nervous”? What like “woman” “female” and “breast”?

• ask staff not to use any phrases or words that make you uncomfortable or nervous
• tell the staff your pronouns, if you would like to

There are all sorts of accommodations that are more likely to be required that are not spelled out. Why be specific about pronouns which for the majority of people would be a head scratcher when only a very small number would require that particular accommodation. It’s virtue signalling bullshit

This really doesn't bother me. Women who wear binders and/or identify as men need mammograms too and if this helps them access them then great. Much rather this than all the nonsense the other way, where trans people are recorded as being the sex they identify as and miss out on vital screenings.

I had a mammogram and a follow up visit to the breast clinic shortly after. There was none of this nonsense so it must be regional.
Both letters stressed I would be seen by female staff only.
I would certainly have made my views known if stuff like this did appear; we must all push back if we can.

Breast cancer screening, which is what this document relates to, is for the older age group.