Comment on Rishi Sunak says people ‘can’t be any sex they want to be’ in new swipe at trans community
Occamsrazer@lemdro.id 8 months agoMaybe I’m not understanding your comment, but in certain contexts, gender identity is not relevant but biological sex IS, such as in treatment or early diagnosis of cancers that are specific to one sex or the other. Hospitals need to be able to communicate verbally and in email or written correspondence about these things, but if language is obfuscated to the point where it is not clear what that individual’s risks are (based on their sex), then it is only that individual who will be worse off for it. This point doesn’t need to be extrapolated to larger contexts for political power, but it should also not be ignored because of possible implications to larger gender identity questions.
Angry_Maple@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
To be honest, it might not hurt for them to do some of those tests anyways in some circumstances. Some people might go through their entire life without knowing that they have both types of internal reproductive organs. Hell, some people don’t know that a majority their organs are inversed from the normal positioning.
Aside from that, I would argue that at the medical care level, it could/should be considered private medical information. Let’s say hypothetically that someone has severe PCOS. Having PCOS increases the risks for certain cancers, but it’s still unnecessary for anyone other than their doctor to know about it.
If you’re in the emergency room, they’re probably going to be doing various tests on you if you have severe symptoms. If you have severe abdominal pain, you’re probably going to get an ultrasound. You’ll probably get bloodwork tests that look at various hormone levels. (Pregnancy and a certain testicular cancer share some of the same flags. Certain hormone levels can also indicate thyroid issues.)
If someone goes to their doctor with complaints about their own reproductive system, I would hope that their doctor tests and treats them for that problem. Again, intersex people DO exist, so proper investigation should be a thing already. Even with CIS people, not everyone looks the same, and I think that it would be a shameful reason to let a person die.
Occamsrazer@lemdro.id 8 months ago
Yes, everyone is unique to some degree. For instance my wife’s uterus is slightly tilted. It rarely matters, but every once in a while it causes discomfort. Knowing this, doctors don’t need to over react to additional and unexpected discomfort during pregnancy. But this isn’t relevant most of the time, so hospitals focus on factors that help quickly and efficiently diagnose the issue. Age and sex are probably the biggest of these factors, along with medical history. Gender identity is usually not important, though in some cases it could help identify someone who is intersex. But these cases are rare enough not to warrant their own check box, much like a tilted uterus.