Clinics that deal with female health issues could be forced to drop the word woman to avoid upsetting trans patients.
According to The Telegraph:
A report proposing new NHS treatment guidelines in Scotland suggests “a general move away from gendered healthcare” and warns that trans people are put off attending services if they are targeted at a certain sex.
It states that trans men may feel “really uncomfortable” if they have to attend a “women’s health clinic” for services such as contraception or cancer screening programmes.
The proposed guidelines, which are set to be sent to Nicola Sturgeon’s minister for approval imminently, want the Scottish NHS to formally recognise “increasing gender identities for patients”, especially those who consider themselves neither male nor female.
It also calls for laboratories to “decouple” reference ranges in test results from “gender markers”. Men and women have different healthy ranges on a series of criteria, for example in blood tests.
The report claims ranges should instead be “relevant to the individual.” The suggestion was branded a denial of reality by doctors.
Experts have raised fears that moves towards what trans activists see as “inclusive language” in the health service are dehumanising and potentially dangerous, for example by confusing those who do not speak good English.
“It seems that the Scottish NHS is in the grip of a science-denying cult,” Susan Smith, a director at the For Women Scotland campaign group, said.
“Gender, including non binary identities, are an irrelevance in medicine, but sex matters. This move will, almost inevitably, rebound on women.
