Put Word ‘Woman’ Back Into Health Advice, NHS Told

NHS bosses have been urged to start using ‘women’ and ‘woman’ again on health pages online. MailOnline has more.

Gender-specific terms have been quietly scrubbed on official advice sites under a woke inclusivity drive.

Pages on ovarian, womb and cervical cancer as well as the menopause, which can only biological women can suffer, were affected by the changes.

Ministers, including ex-Health Secretary Sajid Javid, had pledged to crackdown on the practice — but action has yet to be taken.

Here are some examples of the woke language changes that have engulfed NHS communications. Some of these examples have been taken from national NHS communications while others are used by individual hospitals.

Now a 1,400-strong group of campaigners have demanded immediate action, in an open letter started by the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG).

Doctors, nurses and healthcare practitioners are among the signatories.

The letter is addressed to NHS chief executives, ministers and chief nursing officers from across the UK.

CAN-SG said the changes have “occurred by stealth over the past couple of years”.

Campaigners claimed that the scrubbing was discriminatory, given that conditions specific to men haven’t been affected as prominently.

They also claimed patients felt the updated language “dehumanising”, making it less clear about who is the “intended audience” of such advice.

Experts have long warned that de-gendering medical advice could be dangerous for women by over-complicating vital health messaging.

The group said the NHS website is a “specific, significant source of health information for everyone” but there has been a “gradual eradication” of the word ‘woman’.

It accuses the health service of “reducing” the word ‘woman’ to phrases such as ‘anyone with a cervix’ and failing to explain that ovaries are female reproductive organs.

The changes were made without conducting an equality impact assessment, consulting the public, considering how women would feel or analysing how it could impact women’s health.

The health service also failed to seek legal advice on whether its actions are discriminatory.

Dr Louse Irvine, spokesperson for CAN-SG, said: “The incredible response to this letter — over 1,400 signatures in 24 hours — shows how strongly women patients and clinicians feel about this issue.

“The NHS should heed these views: accurate sex-based language is important to ensure life saving health communication is understood by those for whom it is intended, and to convey respect for women, their bodies and health issues.”