NHS removes word ‘woman’ from ovarian and uterine cancer advice pages

MailOnline may reveal that the NHS’s official advice on ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers has quietly removed the word “women” from their web pages.

The term was absent from the landing pages of the three chapters describing cancers found only in biological women.

While services are currently in a storm of “awakening” around gender neutral language about women and pregnancy, deleting terms like breastfeeding, the use of trans-inclusive language in NHS guidance is among persistent concerns.

Some midwives have even learned how to help biological males give birth, even if it is scientifically impossible.

The original version of the NHS ovarian cancer page contained the sentence: “Ovarian cancer, or ovarian cancer, is one of the most common cancers in women.”

Also, highlighting women at particular risk, “Ovarian cancer primarily affects women who have gone through menopause (usually over 50), but can sometimes affect younger women as well.”

In an update secretly released in January that activists discovered only this week, both lines were removed.

Added another line instead: “Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mainly affects people over 50.”

Experts also warned that the change could be dangerous for women by overcomplicating health messages.

But the NHS has defended the update, saying it wants to make the pages “as useful as possible to anyone who needs it”.

As of 30 December 2021, the old version of the NHS page on ovarian cancer (left) specifically mentions women twice, while the new version (right) does not.

A similar change occurred in uterine cancer, where in the previous version of August 2021 (left) both “women” and “women” were mentioned, but removed on the right.

Finally, the NHS page on cervical cancer was also changed to “women” and “women” in the old version of August 2021, but these terms have been removed from the new web page.

There are around 7,500 new cases of ovarian cancer in the UK, with around 4,200 deaths each year.

Similar changes were made to the NHS page on uterine cancer, which began with “Cancer of the womb (cancer of the womb or endometrium) is a common cancer affecting the female reproductive system”.

“It’s more common in women who have gone through menopause.”

But the page was changed to skip those lines last October, with no further mention of women on the front page.

The same happened on the NHS cervical cancer page, and in the previous version: “Cervical cancer develops in a woman’s cervix (the entrance to the uterus from the vagina). It primarily affects sexually active women between the ages of 30 and 45.

There is no mention of female or female, although the new version includes a diagram of the vagina, uterus, and cervix.

There are around 9,700 cases of uterine cancer in the UK, with around 2,400 deaths each year. And there are about 3,200 new cases of cervical cancer with about 850 deaths.

Professor Jenny Gamble, a specialist midwife at Coventry University, told MailOnline that changing languages ​​puts women at risk of losing their health information.

“The trend of not using the terms female and female doesn’t help,” she said.

“It is a well-known communication principle to make people’s gender visible when appropriate and not when it is inappropriate.

“This ensures that sexual needs and problems are not neglected.”

Professor Gamble, who is co-author of a paper with several other experts on the importance of gender-specific language in healthcare, said it is imperative that health information reaches its intended audience.

“In healthcare communication, the target group should be able to easily determine whether the information applies to them,” he says.

“With regard to ovarian cancer, it is important to use the terms female and female to mean gender, because ovarian cancer only affects women.”

However, he added that sensitive and respectful communication tailored to a patient should be used at an individual level.

The NHS website is operated by NHS Digital, and a spokesperson pointed out that women were later mentioned in other subsections of the ovarian cancer website.

They also noted that the pages are constantly updated based on the best evidence and are as relevant as possible for all people.

“We’ve updated the pages as part of our routine review of the web pages to keep them aligned with the best clinical research and to make them as helpful as possible for anyone who needs them,” they said.

MailOnline also asked Health Minister Sajid Javid, who this week tweeted “biological sex is important: ask a doctor or nurse” for his opinion on the changes, but did not respond.

The change to the NHS web pages is the latest in the ongoing battle over the use of gender terms in healthcare.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that hospitals were asking men if they were pregnant before undergoing any screening or cancer treatment.

And earlier this month, MailOnline announced that NHS hospitals have spent more than £800,000 on gender-neutral toilets over the past four years.

It also comes after this website last month taught midwifery students at Napier University in Edinburgh that biological men can get pregnant and that trans men can give birth even if they have penises.

In a later revised textbook, midwives in training were given detailed instructions on how to treat a male-to-female transgender person during childbirth.