No mention of 'girl' or 'female' on NHS poster about child pregnancy

[Dominoodles]

I've seen this photo on Facebook and had to share. This was seen in a doctor's surgery, explaining that even a girl as young as ten could be pregnant and what that means. It's a horrible subject but I get the need for it to be a discussion, given the state of things right now.

But there is nothing mentioned on here about girls, or women, or females. A 'person' of child bearing age is not clear to little girls. A ten year old girl suffering sexual abuse is not going to realise this is for her. A ten year old boy is not going to realise it isn't for him, because it doesn't actually say. The visuals on the poster even show what appears to be a man as well as women.

Not too mention kids who do suffer sexual abuse are not going to have had a comprehensive sex education, so they might not even understand what 'child bearing age' is without context.

Ten year olds are not going to see this as the offer of help it was intended to be, and by obfuscating who this is meant for, those girls could be missing out on necessary help. It even uses the kid friendly word tummy, but can't use the word girl.

I mean, I kind of see your point but I don't think it matters that a boy won't realise it's not for him, because it's just warning you that this might happen before you are surprised and upset by the question from the radiographer. And they're not going to ask a boy if the patient's sex is visible on their record, which I assume it is.

"patients of child bearing potential" I'm sure there used to be a word to describe those people 🤢

I guess the boy bit isn't super relevant but less of my point. Nurses and doctors are mandatory reporters, so if a girl replies that she could be pregnant it's an opportunity for the right reports to be made and support given. If a girl reads this and doesn't even realise it's for her, you can lose the opportunity for her to find a way to talk to someone.

How can people trust the NHS and doctors when they produce garbage like this.

“I trust the experts” 🤣🤣 I’d rather take my chances alone thanks.

The poster is ridiculous. Why is one of the kids in it a boy?

When they give someone an xray their details are on the screen

Do girls not understand what "young person" means.

You think they will read that and think "I'm not a young person, I'm a girl!"? If they do I think that points to a problem with literacy that should be addressed.

10 year olds can understand this just fine. I can tell it's not really about the children.

You are grasping at straws for things to complain about. The poster is fine and perfectly clear for it's intended purpose. No need to get all worked up.

Oh for fuck’s sake, that poster is so unclear. Girls are not going to know it means them. I despair. CoI: Doctor.

The person of child-bearing age might identify as male.

Don't they also ask all men if they are pregnant though?

Because the reality is, transpeople do exist, and sometimes it may not be easy to be sure what biological sex someone is. So they ask everyone to make sure a pregnant transman doesn't slip through the net.

And if they set the age bar above 10, they could miss out on the tiny number of pregnant 12 year olds that the NHS, tragically, does occasionally see.

These guidelines are there because there have been numerous cases of young women presenting with stomach pains who are actually pregnant. As the number of young transmen has grown, it's not impossible that a young woman, presenting as a male, could be pregnant.

Virtually all 10 year olds and virtually all men will find the question baffling or hilarious, but they are not unreasonable to ask it.

I thought they did ask everyone though, boys and men included?

I work in an x ray department. All people aged 11 to 55 are asked if they could be pregnant. It is ridiculous. We've also recently changed a poster that was aimed at pregnant women urging them to tell staff they were pregnant - a speech bubble saying "please tell them about me mum!" - the word mum has now been removed.

The problem is even once all this trans nonsense hopefully blows over - there will be no going back. X ray staff will forever have to ask burly 30 year old men if there's any chance they are pregnant.

Yea....id be getting my pen out and correcting that. Done it on a couple of other posters in my GP surgery that are still up after about 6 months 😃

If all these posters and campaigns are now aimed at "you", we are all expected to read a lot of information that is irrelevant to us and spend time figuring out who the information is actually for. Since people are not particularly keen on engaging with campaigns in the first place, this will result in even less engagement. "You"-texts are ableist, because they hide who they are aimed at.

Just shows how successful the misogynistic campaigns to remove all femaile language from health care have been. Whoever would have imagined that society would be told that the accurate words woman and girl can no longer be used in relation to maternity and pregnancy for ... reasons...

It also speaks to the nature of too many senior staff in the NHS who openly promote and sign off on these anti women beliefs. In a responsible organisation they'd be immediately removed as being a potential danger and unfit to work with the public.
But this is the NHS so they get promoted. As Sandie Peggie and the Darlington nurses cases evidence.

I'd be more concerned that they are using the words "Ionising Radiation Regulations" on a poster aimed at children TBH

They ask ALL boys and men having an x ray if they could be pregnant?

But can’t use girl or woman. How strange.

They do ask boys though

One of the (many) problems with the NHS is that most, if not all, trusts no longer record sex, only "gender" so it can easily become an issue. Some posters have reported that they have seen recent evidence of this changing, but it is not changing at all trusts, or quickly enough.