Despite having no uterus to bear a child, male patients in Liverpool are now reportedly being asked if they are pregnant before having scans.
In the name of inclusivity, male patients who require X-Rays and MRI scans are now being asked by an NHS trust in England if they pregnant before their procedures. Such scans may cause harm to women who are pregnant. But the British government has replaced the word "females" with "individuals" in the guidance involving such scans in response to the demand for more inclusivity.
According to GB News UK, male cancer patients at the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust in Liverpool have been asked if they are pregnant before X-Ray and MRI scans. The institution now requires that, "All patients under the age of 60, regardless of how you may identify your gender" must be asked this question.
Radiotherapy may pose a risk to the unborn child and England's Department of Health updated its rules back in 2017 to change the wording on health questions before a scan from "females of childbearing age" to "individuals of childbearing potential." Not the Bee pointed out that these "medical experts going against basic science and biology (and common sense)."
The media outlet argued that these moves are made just to "[fall] in line with woke nonsense that goes against everything you know to be true. Like for example, the fact that men [cannot] get pregnant."
Under NHS guidance, patients are not required to go through a legal process to change their name and gender on their official documents. This was heavily criticized by activists, who claim that gender and not sex is recorded in the documents.
"This is an example of why we need both sex and gender clearly recorded for patients," Kat Barber of the group Sex Not Gender Nurses and Midwives remarked.
Barber added, "We do not need to ask all patients if they are pregnant. We need to ask females, hence why it is important to know if the person we are providing care for is female whilst also respecting their gender identity."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust explained that their policy on asking patients if they are pregnant before undergoing X-Ray or MRI procedures "adheres to national legislation, as certain amounts of radiation can be harmful to fetuses in utero." The spokesperson added that asking all people regardless of their sex at birth and "regardless of gender, is the least intrusive way of ensuring it is safe to proceed."
It is also under the discretion of NHS trusts whether they decide to ask men if they are pregnant before undergoing scans.
Amidst this controversy, a lawmaker in the United Kingdom's Conservative Party under Prime Minister Boris Johnson has planned this week to change his gender identity to become Britain's first openly transgender member of parliament, Reuters reported. Thirty-seven year old Jamie Wallis said in a statement that he was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and admitted to having "felt" that way since he was a child.
"I have never lived my truth and I'm not sure how. Perhaps it starts with telling everyone," Wallis shared. "I had no intention of ever sharing this with you. I always imagined I would leave politics well before I ever said this out loud."
