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.

Yes.

Or at least they are supposed to.

Hmmmm... how can they tell that they are boys or men?? I wonder how they did it 10 years ago, or 20? It's just such a mystery!

They ask everyone, as other posters have pointed out. They don't just ask women and girls. That's because some trans patients have all details of their birth sex redacted.

I sometimes feel that woman and girls are being erased by the NHS. I remember seeing a poster that mentioned "pregnant people"🤔

OK. Then the poster explains why everyone is being asked. Whether or not you think it's stupid, and I do think it would make sense for patients to have a visible note on file explaining if there is a 0% risk of pregnancy for example because they don't have a womb, it wouldn't make sense for the poster to refer to women and girls if men and boys are also asked the question as well.

It doesn't miss a safeguarding opportunity for girls either IMO, because if she is receiving an X-Ray she will be asked. The final paragraph is talking about worries or suspicions of pregnancy in relation specifically to an X-ray or other radiology procedure, not in general "if you're worried you might be pregnant talk to someone". Which I agree is good advice, but doesn't necessarily need to be gendered. If a boy aged 11 is worried he might be pregnant then a HCP can gently explain why that is not possible, and then open any relevant safeguarding concerns anyway. And teenagers past puberty generally understand what sex they are and whether they can get pregnant or not. If that was what was being suggested then I would agree it is poor, but it doesn't seem to be the purpose of the sign.

Yes, they ask me too (female, 71 years)!

On principle it’s problematic to say that nurses have to ask “all people” over 10 if they might be pregnant because it’s inaccurate. What is wrong with being clear and accurate? They don’t need to ask all people, only the female ones.

It’s bizarre for medical staff, who are supposed to understand science, to participate in this pretence that all people can potentially be pregnant. 49% of the whole population never can.

So are they really asking, and then taking the time to note down, so many unnecessary questions? I thought the NHS was chronically short of time to spend with patients. This looks like an easy way to start freeing up wasted time.

Oh yes, this has been going on for some time. The first thing the activists went for was the language. Without proper language to describe ourselves as women, how could we protect things that belonged to women only. So they went for "pregnant people" because the men might threaten (tantrum) if they hadn't. We need to take our words back!

If that’s the case then there will be other problems as well: if a trans identifying female has anaemia, the likely causes are not at all the same as for a biological male. So would a whole bunch of unnecessary tests be ordered when in fact it was gynaecological?

Given we’re always told how few transgender individuals there are in the population it would be a lot more effective just to ask everyone to write “sex at birth” instead of gender on their medical forms - or better still IMO, just stop falsifying official records.

No one is falsifying anything: they are adhering to the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Orgs that haven't done this are sued.

And yes it means that sex-appropriate care is sometimes missed.

just stop falsifying official records

This.

Most of the mess with this ideology could have been stopped in its tracks if government, charities, schools, and the NHS had just said "no" to men.

I wonder what happens if a biological boy having his tummy x rayed says Yes, there’s a chance he might be pregnant.

Presumably the next questions are about whether he has had unprotected sex.

To which the answer might again be Yes.

What does the doctor do next?! Ask the kid to pee on a stick?

You need a GRC to be covered under the Gender Recognition Act, and that is tiny percentage of the population. And does not apply to children, who cannot obtain a GRC.

Activists have demanded that the NHS change official recording of sex and pander to them by removing any word that even remotely resembles "woman". All to satisfy their ideology.

Again, we need to take our words back.

That first sentence is not logically linked.

That it’s legal to falsify certain documents doesn’t change facts. And if birth sex is just removed, then they should ask the tiny number of people for whom that’s been done, rather than participate in a population-wide pretence.

The time it takes and the risk of mistakes when done systematically is significant.

Remember the Census getting its data completely wrong about numbers of transgender people because so many people with poor English didn’t know what they were being asked. £900 million for the census, only to end up with “Whoops we’re not sure of our numbers because our questions were incomprehensible to a large section of the population”.

It’s the same with medical files: they need to be accurate. Doctors note down when someone is overweight no matter how unpleasant that may be for the person concerned. Because accuracy matters.

They are potentially ten.

If your ten year old is saying they are trans safeguarding should already be involved and there should be questions being asked if the family given what we know of the sexual abuse rate for trans identifying children from information the Tavistock found (Source Hannah Barnes book).

This poster should be aimed at its target audience - that's young females with potentially low literacy levels and understanding - because they could be as young as ten. Not pleasing a woke employee or work place scheme or award system.

If you really want to cover a trans identifying group too you can easily word it better.

It should read "If you are a female aged 10 - 16 (regardless of which gender you identify as)"

This covers all bases because is neutral scientifically appropriate language.

We need to stop this insane idea that acknowledging sex is somehow triggering.

If you are pregnant aged 10-16 you have way more issues than your psuedo religion. You are going to have to face up to your sex precisely because your gender identity didn't allow you to identify out of getting pregnant.

The NHS happily still uses men and male for posters about erectile dysfunction and prostate cancer

Yes, and that's always been the case. The word "man" never changed (wonder why?), just the words that women need.

You are going to have to face up to your sex precisely because your gender identity didn't allow you to identify out of getting pregnant.

I think THIS should be on every "Be Kind" poster in the NHS!

My son is 11.

Some of the kids in his class have massive literacy issues.

One of them has been in the UK less than a year.

Yes literacy is a massive issue and that's why medical messaging needs to be aimed at a low level to be inclusive.

People with low literacy issues are a much bigger number than the number of trans people.

When we talk about inclusivity this is rarely given thought. It's because the people doing the thinking have their heads up their arses and are educated and don't consider anyone outside a tickbox.

But that poster will confuse the 99.999% of girls and women who identify as girls and women - ie the target audience..

So a completely pointless exercise and a waste of time, money, print and wallspace.

You'd think a national HEALTH service could manage to be biologically accurate.

So fucking sick of this.

So some "people" get pregnant and some "people" don't, and we all have to pretend it's a total mystery to everyone which group they will be in until it happens.

Which is stupid when it means all the population has to be addressed in posters that we all know really only apply to a specific and entirely defineable half of us.

But fucking evil when it means society no longer needs to face the connection between being the half of humanity that gets pregnant and the social and economic consequences of being female.

It's so weird isn't it?

Accomodate the 0.1% or whatever by treating them differently when needed - sure.

But don't accomodate the 0.1% or whatever by just ignoring what the 99.99% need altogether - that's madness!

I should add to this that there's no such thing as a transchild. There are only gender questioning children. None have changed sex.

Because that's impossible.

Schools should be teaching this.
So should the NHS even when treating someone who identifies as trans. And they absolutely shouldn't be giving drugs / approving surgery on anyone who doesn't understand that you can't change sex and sex and gender are not the same thing and never can be

It is not safeguarding. It's not ethical. It is cruel and dangerous to be allowing anyone to get access to NHS treatment for gender ideyon the basis of such a big lack of understanding...

The amazing invisible women and girls.

What a bag of shite.
Girls!! Just use the word, make it clear for girls with learning disabilities and those with language difficulties.
It's so annoying and unfair how health messages are made so difficult for these groups.