The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has instructed X-ray operators to ask men if they are pregnant before conducting scans, reportedly prompting patients to “storm out” of appointments in anger over the absurdity of the question.
The so-called “inclusive” guidance was inspired by an incident in which a woman who presented as a man had a CT scan while unknowingly pregnant, thereby exposing her baby to dangerous radiation, The Telegraph reported.
However, NHS staff have stressed that the new guidelines pose a risk to the safety of patients by discouraging appointments due to the distress sparked in both men and women by the new appointment questions, which ask for their “sex at birth” and “preferred name and pronouns” and make “ridiculous” claims about “people who are born with variations in sex characteristics,” according to The Telegraph.
One man on an “urgent cancer pathway” “was so annoyed by the questions on the form, he shouted, he left the department and didn’t actually have a scan,” one radiographer told The Telegraph.
“There is an unnecessary risk for these patients if they do get so annoyed and don’t have the scan,” said the radiographer.
Women have also reportedly cried over “invasive” fertility questions, which now prompt for specific reasons behind infertility, triggering traumatic memories of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, which they are required to cite in background forms.
Staff say that patients of both sexes have been insulted or embarrassed by the suggestion that their sex is not necessarily apparent and that the forms are “indoctrinating” minors by asking them their preferred names and pronouns, while parents are “furious” about this.
According to the guidance, a patient should always be asked ‘What pronouns would you like me to use for you?’ and ‘How would you like to be addressed?’”
The questions were developed by the Society of Radiographers (SoR), who are “pushing a national rollout” according to insiders. General Practitioner Dr. Louise Irvina believes the guidelines are unnecessary given that “it should be possible for medical records to accurately record sex.”
She further stated, “Given that it is impossible for anyone of the male sex to become pregnant, there is no need to ask male people if they might be pregnant, and thereby avoid a lot of embarrassment and upset.”